The Patient:
Beautiful Miss Luna is a longtime client of ours, and she is an 11 year old Pitbull Terrier. This
cutie weighed in at about 62 pounds at her last visit with us recently. Luna presented to us with
a limp on her left front leg, but still in her usual great spirits!
The Case:
As usual with a patient visit, the first thing our doctor did was Luna’s initial exam. She looked
fantastic (and cute) as always, but the limp was certainly noticeable. Ouch! More often than
not, our doctors will recommend radiographs for our limping/lame kiddos so we can
rule out any breaks or fractures. Luna’s parents' being the rockstars they are happily obliged and
gave us the okay to get their baby on the X-Ray table! Luckily, Luna seemed to be break-free,
which was a huge relief to the family and our team. But, then it was time to figure out why she
wasn’t hopping and trotting around like her normal self.
The Treatment Plan:
Considering Luna’s age and breed, it was time to consider the possibility that Osteoarthritis
was starting to peak its’ ugly head! It was at this time that we knew exactly what may help Luna get back on all fours comfortably once again. If you are a dog parent yourself, you may have heard about a fairly new injectable drug called “Librela”. Librela is a monthly injection that
works by neutralizing NGF (a protein that plays an important role in pain regulation) in the joint,
essentially destroying the pain pathway in our patients. We call it a miracle worker because of
the amazingly positive feedback we hear from the majority of our clients after even just the
first dose in some cases! We advised Luna’s family that she may be sore at the injection site for
a day or 2 just like she would be with her normal vaccinations, but that side effects of the drug
are rare. We let mom and dad know that if they do not notice any improvement in their baby
they should give us a call so we can arrange for them to pick up some traditional pain
medications. However, the only call we received was from mom letting us know that Luna was
feeling great and moving around like normal again....so those pain meds were not needed after all!