OA pain care moves beyond NSAIDs in Clinician’s Brief podcast

CURRENT FULL VERSION: Clinician’s Brief is spotlighting a familiar but increasingly important message in companion-animal medicine: osteoarthritis pain management shouldn’t begin and end with NSAIDs. In its sponsored podcast “Osteoarthritis Pain: Beyond NSAIDs,” host Dr. Beth Molleson speaks with veterinary pain expert Dr. Robin Downing about broader pain-control strategies and about helping pet parents recognize pain sooner, before mobility loss becomes severe. Sponsored content isn’t the same as a guideline or peer-reviewed study, but the episode lands in step with where small-animal pain management has been moving for several years: toward earlier recognition, multimodal treatment, and more structured follow-up. A separate Clinician’s Brief partner podcast, sponsored by Hill’s Pet Nutrition, makes a complementary case from the rehab side: sports medicine specialist Dr. Matt Brunke argues that mobility and joint health management has to extend beyond medications and supplements to include weight control, activity planning, environmental support, and recovery-focused care. (cliniciansbrief.com)

That shift has a clear backdrop. The 2022 AAHA Pain Management Guidelines for Dogs and Cats describe pain management as an evolving area and recommend thorough assessment using behavioral, physiologic, and contextual indicators, plus regular reassessment as disease changes over time. The guidelines also emphasize multimodal care, integrating pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic interventions, individualized dosing, monitoring for adverse effects, and client education so pet parents can recognize pain signs at home. (aaha.org)

Downing has been making that case for years. In prior industry coverage, she argued that many OA patients arrive already taking an NSAID yet still have substantial palpation pain, underscoring that chronic maladaptive pain often isn’t resolved by an NSAID alone. She has also pointed to a basic operational gap in practice: if pain assessment isn’t part of every exam, painful patients are easy to miss. That perspective helps explain why the Clinician’s Brief episode focuses not just on drugs, but also on communication and implementation. (veterinarypracticenews.com)

Brunke’s mobility-focused discussion adds practical detail to that broader framework. He emphasizes that cats are often underrecognized in the joint-health conversation even though obesity is common and age-related primary OA is a routine problem in indoor cats. In dogs, the day-to-day caseload extends beyond classic OA to include cruciate disease, ligament injury, and postsurgical or post-injury mobility deficits that can become chronic if function is not actively supported. The common thread is that mobility is closely tied to quality of life, and management decisions should account for how a pet moves at home, not just what appears on an exam-room problem list.

The broader therapeutic landscape has also expanded. AAHA’s guidance supports combining medications with physical therapy, acupuncture, and environmental modifications where appropriate. In cats, the 2024 AAFP Chronic Pain Toolkit describes frunevetmab, an anti-nerve growth factor monoclonal antibody, as a first-line labeled therapy for chronic OA pain, while also noting that there is no NSAID approved in the United States for treatment of chronic pain in cats, despite acute-use approvals and long-term approvals in some other markets. In dogs, newer options such as bedinvetmab have widened the conversation around first-line treatment choices and monitoring. Brunke’s comments fit neatly into that multimodal model: even when medications help, clinicians still need to address body condition, muscle maintenance, home traction and access, and realistic exercise plans if they want to preserve function. (aaha.org)

Industry and regulatory attention reflects both the promise and the complexity of those newer therapies. Zoetis said in March 2025 that a company-sponsored study found Librela provided pain relief equivalent to meloxicam in canine OA, supporting the idea that both can be used as first-line options. At the same time, the UK Veterinary Medicines Directorate said in February 2026 that, after an in-depth assessment, Librela’s benefits continued to outweigh its risks for most dogs treated, while also advising veterinary professionals to review product information carefully, monitor patients during treatment, and report suspected adverse events promptly. The regulator had recently updated product information to add immune-mediated polyarthritis, paresis, and paralysis as event terms. (news.zoetis.com)

Why it matters: For veterinary teams, the practical implication is that OA management is becoming less about choosing a single product and more about building a repeatable care pathway. That means screening for pain proactively, setting expectations with pet parents that OA is chronic and progressive, using validated assessments where possible, and matching therapy to species, comorbidities, caregiver capacity, and response over time. It also means keeping the whole team aligned on follow-up, adverse-event monitoring, and home-environment coaching, because weight control, mobility support, rehab, and client observation remain central even when drug options expand. Brunke’s emphasis on overlooked feline patients and on function after injury or surgery is a useful reminder that “joint health” is broader than arthritis alone and often starts with everyday management choices. (aaha.org)

The sponsored nature of the Clinician’s Brief episode matters here, too. PRN Pharmacal’s involvement suggests an educational and commercial interest in the OA conversation, but the core themes highlighted by Downing are broadly consistent with independent professional guidance. The same is true of the Hill’s-sponsored mobility podcast with Brunke: the sponsorship is worth noting, but the practical recommendations around obesity, rehab, and environmental support are well aligned with guideline-based multimodal care. For readers in practice, the most useful takeaway is less about any single brand and more about the workflow change: treat OA pain as a chronic disease state that needs early detection, multimodal intervention, and regular reassessment, not a one-time prescription. (cliniciansbrief.com)

What to watch: Expect more scrutiny, and more protocol-building, around how practices combine NSAIDs, anti-NGF biologics, rehab, nutraceuticals, nutrition and weight-management strategies, and caregiver education, especially as post-market safety monitoring and comparative data continue to shape prescribing decisions. (aaha.org)