Sarah Hunter BVetMed MRCVS qualified as a vet in 2012 from the Royal Veterinary College in London and has worked in private veterinary practices in North Yorkshire since. She currently works as a small animal and equine vet, regularly writing educational pieces for local and national publications. She is working towards advanced veterinary practitioner status and became interested in arthritis and its management when her own dog began to show signs of elbow disease at the age of 8.

Sarah’s own dog Jasper developed elbow arthritis at the age of 8, leading her to try lots of different treatment and management options. Having this first-hand experience has enabled her to give more informative advice to owners.

As a vet, Sarah has found the CAM website invaluable for providing advice to owners about osteoarthritis and environmental modifications and would like to contribute to this great resource. Sarah is keen to learn more about osteoarthritis and is working towards an affiliation with the Veterinary Osteoarthritis Alliance.

Sarah kindly agreed to answer the following questions:

What are your feelings on how we currently manage this common debilitating condition in dogs?

There are lots of options out there for the treatment of osteoarthritis and so many para-professionals offering services such as hydrotherapy and physiotherapy. I think for some pets, arthritis is managed well but there are so many that could be managed better.

As a veterinarian what do you feel is essential for managing canine arthritis effectively?

The most important thing is to be able to work with an owner who recognises that there is a problem and is keen to do something about it, without this, no treatment plan will be successful.

How do you see treatment options for arthritis progressing over the next ten years?

We are often seeing more treatment options becoming available and I think the recognition of arthritis is growing, meaning that even more treatments should become accessible. The use of stem cells is a particularly exciting area of development and I look forward to seeing this treatment being used more readily in the future.

If you could have the opportunity to give one tip/piece of advice to an owner with a dog suffering from arthritis what would it be?

If your dog is stiff or limping, then it is struggling and needs some treatment, please don’t ignore these signs of pain, assuming it’s just getting old.