Learning More About Senior Dog Care at City By The Sea Veterinary Hospital
At what age is my dog considered a senior?
Great question. When a dog is considered in their senior phase of life can differentiate between different dog breeds. Smaller dogs, in general, age more slowly compared to our large breeds. As a general rule of thumb, we consider dogs senior at about 7 or so, but there are definitely variations from dog to dog.
How often should I be bringing my senior dog in for a checkup?
At City By The Sea Veterinary Hospital, we recommend bringing in our senior dogs every 6 to 12 months. That enables us to gain traction in their health plans moving forward and helps to catch chronic diseases before they become serious as well.
What changes should I be implementing in my senior dog's diet?
Senior dogs do actually have higher protein needs. Most dog senior diets do go ahead and implement those changes. If they're not on a senior diet, many joint diets also take that into consideration. But basically, we do want to increase their protein intake unless they have something else to say otherwise in their medical history.
How can I keep my senior dog active and engaged?
Great question. A lot of it is physical fitness. We want to make sure that they're lean, mean, fighting machines. You can also do resistance training. Hiking is a great activity. It engages their brain and engages a thought process called proprioception, which is mind-body awareness that helps to reduce injury. You could also work with a rehabilitation specialist to help keep their core and muscles nice and strong.
How can I modify my home to make it more comfortable for my senior dog?
Sometimes you need to make adjustments both inside and outside the home for your senior dog. Things that you could do would be adding ramps for stairs or furniture. Sometimes you need to make these adjustments with the car as well. Another common thing that we see in our dogs is osteoarthritis, and they can start slipping on either tile floors or hardwood floors. So, adding things like runners, rugs, or yoga mats just to help them get traction can be helpful for these guys.
Are there any supplements on the market that can help my senior dog stay healthy?
Every dog's a little unique and different, but in general, I do like older dogs to be on a good fish oil. Benefits of that are cognition, heart health, joint health, and skin health, among others. If you do opt to start it, I recommend starting at a smaller dose and titrating up to the labeled dose, and you should make sure you use a veterinary-specific product. They have different ratios of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. It should also have vitamin E added to it to ensure shelf stability.
How will wellness exams change for my senior dog?
In general, wellness exams will be different based on the frequency. If your dog's a year old, we're usually doing them every 12 months or so. Seniors, again, we recommend doing them every 6 to 12 months. In terms of wellness plans moving forward, sometimes their vaccines are changed as they get older because they might not have the same exposure risk as they did when they were young, joyful, bouncy puppies. In addition to that, we are usually recommending blood work more frequently to catch these chronic diseases early and hopefully institute some changes.
How can I tell if my senior dog is in pain or uncomfortable?
Usually, to signify discomfort in senior dogs, we're looking for changes in activity, reduced jumping, and lagging on walks. Some dogs will have a little bit of a low-grade whimper or cry, but most of them don't. So, a lot of times we are looking more for these subtleties at home.
What are the best ways to monitor my senior dog's health at home?
What you want to do is look at their activity level. Is it decreasing? Any lethargy? Those are very early changes we can see. You want to look at the amount of food they're eating, the amount of water they're drinking, and any changes to their stool quality or frequency as well. Those are usually the first things owners are looking for. But you can also examine your dog's muscle mass to see whether it's breaking down or becoming less apparent over time.
If you have questions, we would love to answer them for you. Please give us a call at the office at (848) 217-5000, or you can email us at [email protected]. Our staff would love to talk with you!
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