Information sheet on the Nottingham Dog Arthritis Project
My name is Zoe Belshaw. I am a veterinary surgeon completing a PhD at the School of Veterinary
Medicine and Science, the University of Nottingham. I owned a terrier, Barney, who developed
arthritis in his old age. I realised then that as vets we know very little about how to advise owners to
best care for arthritic dogs to ensure that they have the best possible quality of life. This led to me
starting my research in this area.
What is the aim of this study?
Vets know how to treat dogs with arthritis but we know very little about how arthritic dogs are cared
for at home, what impact, if any, having an arthritic dog has on the rest of the household, and how
owners assess whether their dogs are having a good or a bad day. I am very interested in talking to
owners of dogs with arthritis to help fill in some of these gaps in our knowledge. I hope that these
interviews, along with some other projects being run at the same time, will help us to come up with
information and resources for vets and owners which will benefit other arthritic dogs.
What would I like from you?
I would like you to take part in a face-to-face interview, where you can tell me about your
experiences. The interview will be carried out at a date, time and location that are convenient to
you, and will last approximately two hours. The interview will consist of very broad questions
relating to your dog’s arthritis, how you look after your dog and how you feel about having a dog
with arthritis. I may also ask you to take part in a follow up interview at a later date, and we may
recruit you and your dog to be involved in another part of the project in which we hope to find new
ways to tell whether a dog is comfortable and happy. You can decline to be involved or ask to be
removed from the study at any stage.
If you wish to take part…
Great, thank you! Please email me at [email protected] and include details of the best
way to contact you. I will discuss the study in more detail with you, and you can decide whether or
not you still wish to participate. Again if at any stage you wish to withdraw from the study you are
free to do so.
Thank you for taking the time to find out about this study. If you have any questions or require any
further information you can contact me at [email protected],  0115 9516436, or
my supervisor Lucy Asher at [email protected],  0115 9516436. Alternatively, if you have
any queries or concerns about the design of the study you can contact David Haig, the head of the
School of Veterinary Medicine and Science Ethics Committee at [email protected]. My
PhD is being jointly funded by the Centre for Evidence-based Veterinary Medicine and an external
organisation investing in biological research (the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research
Council or BBSRC).