Normal Joints Look Like this in Dogs and Cats

Wendy Brooks, DVM, DABVP

Date Published: 05/13/2003
Date Reviewed/Revised: 03/29/2017

Additional Resources

• Medications for Degenerative Arthritis in Dogs and Cats

• Physical Therapy for Arthritic Patients

A pet doesn’t have to be a senior citizen to require joint care supplements, pain medication, or physical therapy. Degenerative arthritis can result from an injury or can be the result of genetics/joint conformation. If your pet is stiff or has poor range of motion in a joint, then you will need some education about joint care options and an understanding of what is happening in your pet's joints, especially if surgery is not feasible for one reason or another.

Clinical Signs

Patients are usually young (age four to five years) but any age dog can be affected. (This disease can occur in cats but is very rare.) There is a genetic predisposition for Addison's disease in the standard poodle and bearded collie. Female dogs are affected twice as often as males.

At first signs are vague: listlessness, possibly some vomiting or diarrhea. The dog just does not seem to feel right but not in an obvious way and may seem more or less normal most of the time as symptoms wax and wane with stress. This vague waxing and waning goes on and on with the dog never really getting fully sick but never staying well either. Eventually, the disease comes to a head in a phenomenon known as an Addisonian crisis. The animal collapses in shock due to his inability to adapt to the caloric and circulatory requirements in stress. Blood sugar may drop dangerously low. Potassium levels soar and disrupt the heart rhythm because there is not enough conserved sodium to exchange for potassium. Heart rate slows, arrhythmias result. The patient may not survive this episode.