Canine Arthritis Management is the Internet’s greatest resource to aid dog owners in understanding and managing canine osteoarthritis in their furry friends. English-based veterinarian Hannah Capon is the founder of Canine Arthritis Management (CAM) and offers a goldmine of information completely free of charge on her website, www.caninearthritis.co.uk.

The Meowing Vet spoke with Capon about the plethora of content on her website and social media pages as well as the hands-on services she offers to her U.K. clients and their dogs. We are so excited to share Canine Arthritis Management with dog owners and fellow veterinarians worldwide! Our eye-opening interview with Capon is featured below.

Keep reading to discover more about CAM and canine osteoarthritis and how you can help CAM’s mission of improving the quality of life of dogs around the globe…

Why is the recognition and management of osteoarthritis so important for dog owners and their canine companions?

Capon: Our wants from owning a dog have changed dramatically in the last few decades, going from an essential utility to solely a companion/pet. Our rising expectations on their longevity has matched the rate of developments in improved pet healthcare, meaning we not only want our dogs to live with us by our sides for longer but we can also make that happen. Unfortunately certain diseases such as arthritis are more prevalent in our older pets and arthritis is one such common disease. It is believed that 80% of dogs over the age of 8 will suffer some degree of arthritis, and considering the main clinical finding with arthritis is pain, this is something of a welfare concern.

Arthritis is a source of both acute pain and chronic pain. Acute pain is something we are very familiar with. The stubbing of a toe, the burning of the hands, the searing pain of a cut. Acute pain has a well recognised role in protecting our bodies from harm. It creates a reactive pain, one to which you are forced to act and thus prevent further harm. You are likely to violently withdraw from the source, vocalise your pain, both actions which are very visual and linked with pain, so it is easy to see.

Chronic pain is different and there is still indecision regarding its true role as it doesn’t fit with our understanding of the evolution of the species. Chronic pain is not only long term in nature, but it is also physiologically magnified pain which means the bearer experiences more pain than is actually present, for longer periods than the cause of pain actually exists for. It’s insidious, burning, fluctuating pain. This chronic pain isn’t expressed in a sudden pronounced reaction, it debilitates the bearer over time, causing them to modify their posture and capabilities, change their movements and lifestyle, as well as causing emotional strain and depression. It is well recognised in the human medical sector examples of conditions causing this type of pain being diabetic neuropathies, cancer pain, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel, migraines and arthritis. It is less well recognised in our senior canines because owners don’t see sudden changes that they can pick up on. Instead they see a slow decrease in activity, reduced energy levels, less or short lived enthusiasm for exercise, which are often categorised as just slowing down, or just getting old, and not acted upon.

But it is important that we recognise the signs of pain promptly, as if left it leads to both mental and physical exhaustion, poor quality of life and premature euthanasia.

Through identifying signs of discomfort in your dog sooner, you have more chance of controlling it, and improving your dog’s quality of life for longer.

What led you to create Canine Arthritis Management (CAM)?

Capon: I started CAM by accident really. I was frustrated by my limited veterinary influence on my arthritic patients. I felt I was a one trick pony with regards to management and I wanted to offer my clients and their dogs more. I was learning about combining therapeutics for better pain control, but that wasn’t enough, so I completed a diploma in Galen Myotherapy (GM). That was when it all changed. GM taught me to identify compromised dogs through looking at their posture, their physique and their behaviour. It opened my eyes to how the pain of arthritis isn’t just localised to the diseased joint, but how it is dispersed throughout the body through weight shifting from the painful area to a new area that then subsequently becomes painful itself through overwork, and that by alleviating that I could reduce the dogs true pain state.

With this newfound knowledge I was raring to go, combining it with veterinary [medicine] but had nowhere to work from, as it isn’t a consultation/ treatment that you can do in a 15 minute veterinary consult. So I started working in owners’ homes, and this was when I realised CAM was essential and not an option.

Through the house visits and the long consults where I covered all aspects of managing an arthritic dog, I started getting a real feel for what dog ownership meant to the people of Brighton [England], and what their understanding of arthritis was. I was able to see how the majority of people lived, where and how they exercised their dogs, and the expectations they put upon their dog[s]. I encountered misunderstanding with regards to identification of clinical signs, exercise expectations, diet, home care, and medical care. I was regularly seeing owners that loved their dogs getting it wrong and I felt strongly that there should be good quality independent advice out there for owners to tap into. The Internet was a minefield with outlandish product claims, persuasive marketing strategies preying on emotionally vulnerable owners that just wanted to do the best for their dog. There wasn’t a safe online site that offered non-biased, proven, multimodal therapy options.

The final push came after I was driving with a client to see The Supervet and we were talking about my “obsession”. When I told him that arthritis was the main reason I put dogs to sleep he nearly crashed the car saying, “What, arthritis kills?” Now I hadn’t considered it in such blunt terms before, but he was right, it does. And watching the impact those words had on him made me realise that owners didn’t realise that such a common disease could be the cause of their dog’s death. People have grown to terms with cancer and heart disease being major causes of death, but not arthritis, and I believe this is because we would never dream of putting a person to sleep [due to] arthritis, so owners would never believe that we would do that to our dogs.

“During a very bad week in practice I put two dogs to sleep in quick succession who had both gone off their back legs. They were mentally there but their bodies had given up. I suddenly realised that osteoarthritis needed to be approached much more thoroughly and at a much earlier stage in a dog’s life.”

At this same time, I was also witnessing how emotionally debilitating it was for my clients to manage their dogs’ deteriorating condition. How upsetting it was for them to be battling against a painful condition that they could see their loved friend struggle with!

I felt compelled to create a gold standard online resource for dog owners of all backgrounds to access.I wanted to enable people to help themselves to help their dogs. I wanted to put it out there how the most important influencers of pain control and progression were under owner control: the identifying of levels of pain and tailoring lifestyle and medication[…], adapting the home environment to make it hazard free, and modifying the exercise regimes to suit.

This has resulted in www.caninearthritis.co.uk which is a FOC informative website that is designed to provide owners with everything they need to manage their dog’s condition. It is continuously being expanded and now is having contributions from other passionate veterinarians like myself. @canine_arthritis on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are social media supports to the website raising awareness, publicising the importance of early identification and action, and giving daily management advice.

Visit or contact Canine Arthritis Management online!

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Videos and images in this article used by permission from Canine Arthritis Management.