07/26/2025
Let's talk about joints! And not the ones you roll 🤭.
I get asked a lot about joint issues, supplements, and more, so I thought I'd make a mini-series of posts to provide you with some more information. With Shylow joining us August 5, I'm hoping to have time to post more educational content.
Today I'm going to focus on the main joints we are concerned about in pet dogs and how dysfunction can occur.
Every breed has a standard of "conformation" which is essentially how the dog is put together. How those pieces get put together matter, because they influence movement, endurance, function, and yes, longevity. The good news is, even in dogs who aren't as structurally sound as we'd like, there are things we can do to promote movement, function, and longevity.
The first thing I will tell you is how joint dysfunction occurs.
What causes joint dysfunction?
Joint dysfunction can be genetic/congenital, environmental, or accidental.
Genetic dysfunction means the dog was genetically predisposed to having poor joint function. The sire and or dam of the dog had poor joint assembly and passed that along to the puppies. It may be apparent to the naked eye very early in life or not until much later. Genetic dysfunction can be mostly avoided by having the joints x-rayed and evaluated by the Orthopaedic Foundation for Animals (OFA). This would be done prior to the dogs being bred. The OFA database is a publicly searchable database - you can look up any dog in North America and if they have been evaluated, the results will be in the database. If there are no results, either the dog wasn't evaluated or the results were poor, in which case the owner chose to have the results suppressed.
Environmental dysfunction can occur due to factors in the puppy's environment. For example, if the puppy is raised on slippery flooring they can develop laxity in their hips and develop hip dysplasia. Or puppies who engage in actives that are not age appropriate such as jumping too high, doing slippery stairs, etc can result in environmental joint dysfunction.
Accidental joint dysfunction occurs as the result of, well, an accident. The dog is hit by a car, or runs off an icy surface, or injures themselves doing dog sports, resulting in an injury to the joint that is permanent.
Stay tuned for me to tell you the three most prominent joints that are affected by joint dysfunction and things you can do to help your dog's longevity if affected.
As a reward for reading this far, I'll tell you a secret - I didn't actually smoke my first joint until I was 40, and I hated it and haven't touched one since! 😆
