Utilization of Voyce Collar for Determining Response to Osteoarthritis Pain Relief in Dogs

Principal Investigator: Joseph Wakshlag

Co-PI: Ursula Krotscheck

Department of Clinical Sciences
Sponsor: Intersections
Title: Utilization of Voyce Collar for Determining Response to Osteoarthritis Pain Relief in Dogs
Project Amount: $31,322
Project Period: August 2016 to August 2017

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): 

As the pet populations age, and continue to receive higher standards of medical care, there are increasing numbers of dogs suffering from osteoarthritis. Many of these dogs present to our rehabilitation service with the only possible intervention being increased physical activity and pharmacological pain mitigation. Currently we utilize client input to determine treatment effects without any objective measures of pain relief other than force mat measurements to determine if dogs are using the most severely affected limb any better. There are currently no objective measures of effectiveness of treatment in the home environment. It is commonly observed that dogs with chronic pain will have a higher heart rate during examination than dogs without pain. (1) The increased activity when coming to the veterinary clinic may also drive this pain response when in the clinic making the veterinary office a less than optimal place to perform quality of life assessment.(2) It is imperative that home environment objective measurements are developed to better assess efficacy of chronic pain management, and the use of heart rate monitoring and activity would be invaluable environmental measures for clinicians.