Introducing COAST

Elanco is committed to the advancement of pain management for companion animals, and we are excited to share new tools that will assist with the detection and management of canine osteoarthritis (OA). For the first time, an international staging system for canine osteoarthritis is available, with a focus on detecting at-risk, pre-clinical dogs as well as clinical dogs earlier in the disease process. The Canine Osteoarthritis Staging Tool (COAST) is the product of over 5 years of collaboration by a group of international specialists in the fields of small animal orthopaedics, anaesthesia and pain management.

COAST provides a framework for identifying risk factors in pre-clinical dogs and for proactively engaging owners in earlier detection of canine OA to facilitate successful treatment outcomes. The information collected from the COAST tool is used to identify the dog’s OA risk, or to diagnose and understand the severity of the disease. The resulting COAST stages of OA range from stage zero (pre-clinical with no risk factors) to stage four (severe OA).

Nearly 75% of dogs with OA are in the moderate to severe stages of the disease before they begin treatment¹. The COAST tool is intended to identify the early signs of OA disease, so veterinarians and pet owners can proactively design customised treatment plans for ongoing pain and inflammation management.

Utilising COAST in everyday practice

During a consultation, veterinarians can use the COAST tool to grade the severity of osteoarthritis, both in the most severely affected joints, and in the dog overall. In addition to a veterinary assessment, COAST also incorporates the results from a validated Clinical Metrology Instrument (CMI) such as LOAD (see below for more information about LOAD). Utilising both the vet assessment and the results from the CMI, COAST automatically generates a score that provides a standardised result of OA severity in individual patients.

COAST results help guide initiation or modification of a dog’s OA management plan and can be re-used to monitor the status of the condition, including response to treatment, over time.