aging is inevitable and with it comes health and quality of life challenges
caring for senior dogs takes a bit of planning to help them to age gracefully
and in this video I'm going to give you some suggestions on how to help your old
dog age gracefully and stay happy
welcome to the dr. Alex answers show where I answer all your dog and cat
health-related questions if we're just meeting for the first time then i'm dr.
alex the veterinarian behind ourpetshealth.com and in today's show i'm
going to answer a question sent in by Rene and Rene runs the amazing tripods
community where she helps pets who have needed an amputation for whatever reason
and she provides some great information and support to their owners and I'll
leave a link down below so Rene replied to my newsletter and said that one of
her biggest challenges with her pet is figuring out how to help them age
pain-free with grace and dignity while keeping him engaged and happy and this
is a great question and something we should strive towards with all our aging
pets with the overriding goal being to maximize their quality of life so I
think we can break this question down into three main parts how to help a
senior pet age with dignity how to keep them pain-free and how to maintain
engagement and mental agility so starting with aging with dignity the
first thing is to recognize that your pet is a healthy weight or try and get
your pet to be a healthy weight so we should never underestimate the
importance of weight gain being overweight and obesity in the overall
health of our body so fat is pro-inflammatory that has a detrimental
effect of the general body health in the general body condition fat also plays a
role increasing the risk of arthritis and we'll come on to pain later
arthritis diabetes as well and numerous other conditions so trying to maintain a
healthy weight will certainly help maintain quality of life and it will
help reduce the risk of other problems that develop and often develop in older
age so tied in with this is also recognizing that dietary changes are
different for a senior dog compared to a young dog so they need different protein
levels they need different energy levels and this means that
switching and feeding a senior diet can make a big difference with things like
the prevention of obesity but also the maintenance of muscle masses well there
are also other supplements or other additions that can be made or that are
already included in a good-quality senior diet that can help them remain
pain-free so things like essential fatty acids can be really beneficial for this
we shouldn't overstate that but feeding a dice specific to the stage of life
that your dog is in can really play a role in helping them age well and again
reducing the risk of disease and optimizing health oral health is another
issue so it's much like obesity the the disease within the mouth also affects
the rest of the body so if a dog has got heavy tart so if they've got a lot of
gingivitis then that sets up a really pro-inflammatory situation so you get a
lot of inflammatory proteins and inflammatory markers and even bacteria
circulating in the blood and that has a knock-on effect on health so a really
unhealthy rotten mouth is going to result in a really unhealthy body so
maintaining good good dental hygiene that could be by brushing it could be by
chews it could be by specific diets but also taking the advice of your vet and
getting the any dental disease sorted so having a scale and polish or even
getting any extractions that need to be done really done at an early stage while
the disease is not so severe rather than wait until the disease is really bad as
having really detrimental consequences maybe your dog stopped eating because
their mouth is so sore now imagine how sore their mouth must be - to make them
stop eating but also your dog will be that much older so there is another
chance of other conditions being being present as well and complicating the
picture and making the risks of having an anaesthetic and a dental procedure a
lot higher so maintaining good oral hygiene is also very important so
another way we can help our pets age with dignity is actually making sure
that we don't avoid any concerns or ignore any concerns that we might have
so remain vigilant but if you think that your dog has started to drink more if
their weight has started to fall off if they started to become a little
stiff that take action at an early stage so it can be very challenging sometimes
to notice that our dogs are unwell or they're not quite right and the signs
the differences can be quite subtle so I'll often say to people who come in
with a concern and if I can't find anything on an exam the likelihood is is
that there is something going on we're just not able to fully pick it up at
this stage with a simple examination and that might be where a blood test comes
in or further further I'm monitoring at home so recording the amount that
they're drinking with most conditions of old age with arthritis kidney disease
diabetes skin disease whatever if we get on to the problem we diagnose it and we
treat it an early stage then the results on your dog's quality of life will be
much less the treatment will likely be easier or quicker to work and the
prognosis the long-term prognosis is also likely to be better so definitely
don't ignore any concerns and remain vigilant for changes that any changes
that you might see in your dog similarly don't ignore any pre-existing conditions
so if you already know that your dog for example has had a cruciate ligament
rupture and has had surgery for that or if they've been treated conservatively
then that's not going away they're going to have arthritis in their in their
joint in their knee and so addressing that rather than just forgetting about
it or rather than just saying well I'm giving some joint supplements or I'm
doing something I've changed their bedding and and ignoring any change in
that condition so just really staying on top of all of the health conditions that
your dog might already be suffering from and also being vigilant for any changes
in their behavior or changes in in in how they're carrying themselves to get
on to the problem sooner rather than later and so my last way to to help her
an older dog in general age more gracefully is just to keep up with
regular regular appointments and health checks at your vet so if we think you
know there's a saying that that one dog year is worth seven human years well you
know we should be definitely having our older dogs examined on a regular basis
now many people will say every six months
certainly every year should be minimum because a lot can change in that
effectively three and a half or seven years of your dog's life and again if we
can if we can run monitoring blood tests or if we can run just general health
checks it means or you know even just feeling there feeling your dog's tummy
or manipulating their joints to look for signs of pain or a reduced range of
motion that might indicate arthritis again if we can get on to these
conditions earlier rather than later then that's going to set us up to be
able to treat and manage any condition that does come up much faster and much
more successfully okay so the next part of the question I guess was really how
do we ensure that they remain pain-free and if you've seen any of my previous
videos you'll know that how important that I think that is I don't think
there's any reason why any dog should suffer from unrecognized or untreated
pain so the first step in ensuring that our older dogs are pain-free is knowing
what the signs of pain are and I've got a separate video that I'll link up here
that go through all of those different signs so if we're just aware of what to
look out for we can pick it up at a much earlier stage and again like I've
already said that puts us in a much better position to treat it more
effectively so if we think our dog is in pain for whatever reason then getting
them checked out getting that diet the reason diagnosed is important but also
addressing it early so pain is something that if it's untreated then what happens
is we get something called a wind-up effect and what that means is that the
nerves coming from that painful area they just get so used to feeling pain
that any slight stimulation just becomes accentuated so that might be a gentle
touch suddenly becomes painful so we really it's really important to avoid
that being the case so addressing any pain early and not accepting difficulty
getting up or a little bit of stiffness that's just a normal aging process it's
not it's a sign of pain and it should be addressed accordingly now there are a
number of different ways we can go about addressing and minimizing or even
eliminating pain in our older dogs so medications obviously play a role and
they really are the cornerstone any arthritis treatment plan or pain for
other other reason we can also make a lot of changes at home and they're good
changes to make for any senior dog so if you've got a lot of laminate slippery
flooring then using carpets or rugs to just increase the grip so that your dog
is finds it easier to get up they're not slipping over they're not falling over
when they're turning corners it might be if they've got a little bit of neck pain
or back pain actually raising up their food ball off the ground will just help
them get down to their meal times or their water bowl with a much greater
ease you could use some ramps to get up any stairs that you have in the house or
to get into the house and you can also get ramps that will help your dog get up
into the car you could always lift them on but obviously for your own point of
view if you've got a larger dog then actually having a ramp is much safer for
for them and for you you're not going to drop them and you're also not going to
put your back out I'm trying to get them up into the car either and then the last
thing would just be to maintain exercise so we want exercise to always be regular
the worst thing we can do is to have a dog being a couch potato for the week
and then at the weekend they go on a ridiculously long hike or a run you know
that's just asking for for pulled muscles for swollen joints and for pain
the next day so we want any exercise to be to be regular ideally daily a couple
of times a day and we want it to be at a level that they enjoy that they get a
reasonable amount of exercise or they get a good sniff around but it's not
more than they can cope with so if you're finding that when your dog gets
back after they've had a bit of a sleep or a bit of a rest they're really stiff
getting up or they're stiff the next day then the likelihood is just that you're
doing too much exercise with them now that might mean that you have to you
know put the ball away that they like to chase or they've always liked to chase
but you know really we want to be doing regular kind of low-impact exercise if
possible especially if there is a problem with joints and just using your
dog's behavior and their recovery as a guide for how much exercise is right for
them so the last part of Renee's question was how to maintain engagement
and mental agility and you know mental stimulation is so important for our
senior dogs so we can buy a new toy we can get problem-solving toys so that
can be as something as simple as a muffin tray you put treats in a few of
the different different trays different muffin sections you cover the the mall
with tennis balls and your dog has to to pick pick them up to get the treats
underneath so interactive toys are great I'm just changing the toys regularly
maybe teaching the new tricks you absolutely can teach old dogs new tricks
you know you might want to keep them simple it might take a little bit longer
but it really does give their brains a good workout and that's very important
and just encouraging interaction so including them in the family being
patient with them when it's taking them a little bit longer to come to you or
it's taking them a little bit longer to get up so being patient but encouraging
that interaction and these are things that are all really important and
preventing something called canine cognitive dysfunction and we might think
of as a senility or just a reduction in mental kind of agility and awareness and
it's something that I've actually got a video planned in a couple of weeks but
canine cognitive dysfunction is something that's really important it's
actually really common and I think it's much more common than we might think it
is and if we can take a few of these steps in the early stages it can
actually really help slow down that degeneration in brain function that some
senior dogs or a lot of senior dogs will will develop as they get older so we
also need to adapt to their changing needs and you know I saw it might be
going so we should try and keep furniture layouts similar so we
shouldn't go changing around the layout because they're more likely to bump into
things they might have a reduction in their healing in their hearing so if
we're calling them there might be quite slow to respond so we just need to be
patient with them and accept that that's something that might be the be be the
case and might be going on and might be affecting their quality of life so other
things were to consider might be that they're becoming a little bit lean or
their hair coats getting too thin putting a jacket on them when you go out
if it's cold outside they might never have needed one before but putting a
jacket on your senior dog in the rain might be great they might also find
grooming themselves a little bit more challenging so you might need to be
cutting their nails that's something that's very very common is that our
older dogs wear developed overgrown nails but just
taking steps to prevent that being the case can make a big difference
especially you know if you think of an older dog with arthritis in its toes if
their nails are growing too long then that actually can push the toes up it
can push them out and that can be painful so it can mean that every time
your dog takes a step then they're in a lot more pain than they need to be and
simply cutting their nails can make a little bit you know can make a little
bit of a difference and can make a significant difference and really with
all of these things quality of life has to be our overriding goal so we want to
try and assess their quality of life we want to always have in the back of their
mind are they happy what are they struggling
with and is there anything that I can do to help them cope with the challenges of
Aging in a much better and more dignified way because there is so much
that we can do but the vast majority majority of it comes about through just
being aware that there might be problems trying to recognize those problems early
and actually taking steps to address them and to put plans in place to make
life easier for your senior dog so I hope that gives you a few action steps
to consider an a and addresses any particular concerns that you might have
had if you have a question like Renee that you'd like me to answer then you
can leave a comment here you could tweet me out our pets health or if you reply
to my newsletter then your questions will get priority and I'll leave a
newsletter signup link down below in the description just make sure that however
you get in touch you include the hashtag dr. Alex answers and I'll know to
include your question in my planning so until next time I'm dr. Alex from our
pets health comm and this is the show where you ask the questions and dr. Alex
answers