Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis in pets, like in people, is a degenerative joint disease associated with aging, that is associated with pain, reduced mobility and can have a significant impact on quality of life. Our colony of aged Beagle Dogs provides us with a natural model of arthritis that uniquely positions us to assist companies developing potential OA therapeutics.
Osteoarthritic dogs are clinically identified with the use of both our quality of life questionnaire and joint radiographs, which must show at least 2 affected joints.
Quality of Life Assessment
The Quality of Life Questionnaire is a laboratory-based adaptation of the canine brief pain inventory (CBPI) questionnaire, which is a clinical questionnaire used to evaluate pain and function level based on pet owner responses. The questionnaire has been validated with both Meloxicam and Carprofen.
Mean scores on our quality of life questionnaire for three groups of Beagle dogs: OA includes dogs meeting the OA criterion; NOA are old and senior dogs that don't meet clinical criterion and Young dogs.
Validation of the Pain Sub-measure of the Quality of Life Questionnaire with Meloxicam
Measures of Activity and Movement
We also provide the following target measures to assess activity and movement:
- Running speed using a T-maze obstacle course
- Home Pen Behavioral Activity using an Activity Monitoring Device
- Orthopedic Evaluation Scoring
- Gait Assessment with the Use of a Forcemat
