Annual Checkups for Older Dogs

Video Transcript

"As your dog gets into the later years, as he gets older, it's very important to maintain you relationship with your veterinarian and to do your annual checkups. As your dog gets older, if there are small things that look like there bothering him, it might even more important to bring him in to check it out. If your dog goes off the food for example, it could be something wrong with his teeth. As they get older, you want to make sure that you maintain an annual checkup routine that you've been doing with your veterinarian and it's also important for that vet to be familiar with your dog. It's better if the vet knows your dog, knew who they were, what they were like, behavioral and medical history from when they were younger so as they go into their older years the vet actually can tell whether or not there is changes that you might not be picking up on. So maintaining your annual checkups is very important. Actually, regarding vaccinations, as your dog gets older and has had vaccinations throughout it's life, it becomes really less necessary to have vaccinations. Often times it can be quite compromising to the dogs immune system to be given the annual vaccinations. Many, many veterinarians are now promoting 3-year vaccinations and many of them also are supporting their client's decisions to take titers, which means looking at the anti body levels present in the animal to see whether they actually need a booster. Often times you'll have a recommendation from your vet when you have an older dog who might have had a lifetime of annual vaccinations that rather than giving them the vaccinations that you take titers. It's a little bit more expensive, but it certainly is less traumatic for the dog's immune system. When they're older they're having a harder time often fighting off things and they're not quite as strong and robust as they were when they were younger. "