Senior Dog & Cat Tips

Humans, canines and felines have more in common than you might think. We know that core strength and exercise offer mental and physical health benefits for senior humans. As the field of geriatric veterinary medicine evolves, we’re learning that the same applies to pets! Benefits in mental health, as well as cognition, result even from physical exercise alone, and specific exercises offer interventions to improve the quality of life for aging pets.

“Research shows that an exercise program that blends flexibility, range of motion, balance, strength and endurance will improve a pet’s quality of life,” said Dr. Laurie Brush, founder of Heaven at Home Pet Hospice.

Dr. Brush serves on the board of the International Association for Animal Hospice & Palliative Care. The organization supports and shares information from veterinarians specializing in geriatric medicine. One presentation that hit home for her was by Dr. Brooke Loewenstein, DVM, CCRT, and CVAT, an innovator in therapeutic exercise.

To get started on home routines for senior pets, we’ll address these aspects in the next three installments of Pet Tips: Getting Started – Foundation Work, Cavaletti & Canine Core Exercises, and “Catercise” for feline aficionados.

Foundation Work – Canine

Basic Walking: Begin with 5 minutes of leash walking twice daily on flat, easy terrain, and build in 1-minute increments every other day until 15 minutes of walking is achieved twice daily.

Training for Paw Lifts: A fundamental skill you may need to train for is individual paw targeting (IPT) – meaning your dog lifts each of his four paws individually on cue. You can further advance this foot movement to mean to lift and “stick” the foot onto a target – such as your hand, a flat target, or an inflatable – for duration.

Perform 3 paw lifts of 5 seconds with each paw once daily. Increase the hold time by 2-3 seconds every week as tolerated, up to 15 seconds. Once this is achieved, slowly increase to 5 repetitions.

Once you help your pet build these skills, you may need to start training on backing up, side-stepping, and stretches, to eventually work up to a balanced routine like the following:

In the next segment, we’ll discuss how to use or create Cavaletti gear, describe the “Cookie Stretch,” and more! Stay tuned.

You’ve heard the expression “three-dog-night” — a night so bitterly cold you’d need three dogs in bed to keep you warm. The phrase begs the question: who keeps the warming dogs warm?

“Winter can be really tough on older dogs. They find it hard to regulate their body temperature, and the cold can exacerbate arthritic joints,” said Dr. Laurie Brush, founder of Heaven at Home Pet Hospice. Here are some tips to keep your senior companion cozy. Read the rest of this entry »

Has your aging dog seemed less playful? Does he or she startle more easily than normal? Are your dog’s eyes cloudy? These are common signs of vision loss.

In some cases, early intervention can slow or repair eye conditions through medical treatment or surgery. In other cases, vision loss is an inevitable fact of aging. Read the rest of this entry »

Swift, silent and deadly: Hemangiosarcoma (HSA) is an aggressive cancer of the blood vessels that pet parents don’t hear much about until it’s too late. In its deadliest form, it causes the spleen or heart to enlarge and ultimately rupture, causing sudden death by internal bleeding.

This devastating cancer is overrepresented among Golden Retrievers, Boxers, German Shepherds, Labrador Retrievers, and Portuguese Water Dogs, to name a few. It’s difficult to detect until it’s too late – pale gums and lethargy are signs of internal bleeding; an enlarged spleen that you can feel means the tumors are advanced. Read the rest of this entry »

While there’s no fountain of youth for your beloved Fido or Fida, there is a growing body of research that suggests what you feed (or don’t feed!) your pet has an enormous impact on his or her ability to age gracefully. Read the rest of this entry »

Does Miss Kitty not get around like she used to? Does she “miss” the litter box for reasons that elude you? Have the days of joyous wind sprints long passed? It’s easy for pet parents to attribute uncharacteristic calmness to “old age” or laziness, but the truth is Miss Kitty might be suffering from Osteoarthritis. In fact, the odds that she is are staggering.

Veterinary researchers estimate that 45% of all cats, 60% of cats over age 6, and 90% of cats over age 10 are affected by arthritis in some way, according to the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. Read the rest of this entry »

Michigan summers boast beautiful grassy, wooded, and sandy scenes but that’s exactly where danger lies for pet parents.

Tick trackers at the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) are forecasting an increased risk of Lyme disease throughout hotspots in West Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. Nationally, infections in both humans and pets peak between June and September. Read the rest of this entry »

Time flies for pet parents. Suddenly, your fur baby is “middle-aged.” Arthritis, surgery, and life-limiting disease can all change your pet’s mobility-ability. Fortunately, there are assistive devices that pet hospice workers LOVE for their clients to use. Read the rest of this entry »