How to Care for an Aging Dog

Video Transcript

"Let's talk about caring for your aging pet. There are lots to keep in consideration when dealing with an older pet just like it is with us. Our joints start to get more arthritis as we get older, things don't heal as well - same for pets. The biggest things to worry about when we're dealing with an aging pet is weight. Dogs tend to gain weight as they get older. If they're still on adult foods they will gain weight easy. Weight obviously contributes to joint and back problems. The more weight they're carrying, the more their joints are carrying as well. So that can progress arthritis. So weight is a big deal. Senior diets mostly are higher in protein, lower in fat and help to try to avoid weight gain. But that's one of the number one problems. Secondly, oral health care is very, very important in aging pets. They're going to have much more tartar build up and gingivitis than a younger animal will. So brushing teeth, if they'll let you do that, dry foods generally are going to be better than canned foods, and then dentistries at your veterinary office. Dentistries are very advanced these days. They can actually do root canals - all sorts of things for teeth. They clean them up to preserve teeth or remove teeth that are no longer needed or are too far decayed. So oral health care is very, very important. Also, arthritis and back problems are obviously things that we're dealing with older pets. So check with your veterinarian and they can help you along as far as there are lots of wonderful medications these days and supplements these days that are used to help with pain, arthritis, joint inflammation, back pain. Also, rehabilitation is getting more and more used in veterinary medicine as far as massage therapy, heat therapy, and swimming - things like that. So checking with your veterinarian is very important. Another thing with aging pets, too, is that constant trauma to them leads to more problems. Dogs that are smaller and are heavier that are jumping off the bed, jumping off the couches all the time is going to lead to more and more problems and so as dogs get older it's better for them not to be big jumpers because that's going to potentially lead to back injuries and things like that."