Noninfectious canine arthritis: the inflammatory, nonerosive arthritides

Noninfectious, nonerosive arthritis was seen as an important manifestation of a number of chronic systemic diseases of the dog. Sixty three dogs with this type of arthritis were seen during an 18 mth period between 1973 and 1975. Of these dogs, 29 had systemic lupus erythematosus, 15 had arthritis in association with some chronic infectious disease process, and 19 had a similar type of arthritis, but without serologic evidence of systemic lupus erythematosus or any chronic infectious disease process. A search of the veterinary literature made it apparent that there was a need for a classification scheme for canine joint disease, especially one that would take into account the recognized types of joint disorders. A classification which includes most of the types of joint disease in the dog is proposed. Its main features are division into noninflammatory and inflammatory arthritis. The noninflammatory form includes arthrosis, the traumatic and the neoplastic types. The inflammatory arthritis may be infectious, or noninfectious, the latter including rheumatoid arthritis and the nondeforming arthritides, as in systemic lupus erythematosus, gout, and chronic hemarthrosis.