Immune-mediated polyarthritis causes debilitating joint pain in dogs and is frequently misdiagnosed, delaying welfare-positive treatment.
IMPA causes profound joint pain affecting multiple limbs simultaneously, making even gentle movement distressing. Dogs with IMPA are often systemically unwell with fever and severe pain that prevents normal posture and activity. The shifting lameness pattern - affecting different legs on different days - frequently leads to misdiagnosis as orthopedic problems, with individual joints investigated while the systemic immune-mediated cause is missed. This delays treatment and prolongs suffering. The good news is that IMPA typically responds rapidly and dramatically to immunosuppressive therapy - dogs that have been severely lame and miserable for weeks often become dramatically more comfortable within days of starting appropriate treatment.