Archive for the ‘Senior Dog Information’ Category

Once your Poodle advances in years, how can you best care for your aging pet every day? “Give your Poodle whatever she wants to keep happy,” suggests one aging Poodle owner. “She deserves it for being such a loyal and loving companion.”

You can start by giving your Poodle a softer place on which to rest her aching bones and joints. Perhaps in her youth she was content to nap on a hard floor, but in old age a comfy bed is in order. Stiffness from osteoarthritis is made worse by sleeping on cold, damp ground or hard surfaces.

You can purchase a soft bed at a pet-supply store or make one yourself with thick foam rubber (easily found at thrift stores) covered with a machine-washable, snug blanket. Place the bed in a dry, draft-free area of the house. Older dogs are sensitive to the extremes of heat and cold. Additionally, reduce stiffness by drying off your Poodle if she gets wet.

Dry her thoroughly after bathing or an outing in wet weather. Make sure she doesn’t get wet and stay damp.

An arthritic Poodle may find it difficult to bend down to eat and drink from bowls on the floor. Consider buying an eating table (a neck-level table with special cutouts for food and water bowls) for her. This will be more comfortable for the senior Poodle who is hesitant to bend her neck due to the stiffness of arthritis.

While an arthritic Poodle may wish to avoid activity because it’s painful, there’s nothing more beneficial to an older dog than a regular exercise program. Exercise improves muscle tone and strength, keeps joints moving, and keeps weight on target. The veterinarian can prescribe medication to reduce arthritic pain to make exercise possible.

Activity is essential, but you’ll need to protect your arthritic Poodle from injury by modifying exercise and not allowing her to overdo it. Avoid jumping and other activities that wear down the joints more. Lift your olden poodle in and out of the car. Avoid stairs and rough play. Let her choose the pace she wants.

The aging Poodle needs more rest than she did in her younger years. If the Poodle is exercising on a regular basis and wishes to nap more, allow that. Just make sure you have a comfy bed handy.

The older Poodle is a creature of habit. She is not likely to appreciate sudden changes in routine, bed placement, food dishes, and activity. Keep such changes to a minimum, changing only what you must.

If you’re planning a vacation, consider hiring a pet sitter to care for your Poodle at home rather than take her to a boarding kennel. Older dogs don’t tolerate drastic changes in their routine such as being away from home in a boarding kennel no matter how nice the place is. Keeping your old Poodle at home while you’re away in the care of a trusted pet sitter is often your best option.

Tumors of the brain and spinal cord are seen with relative infrequency in senior dogs, the former having a higher incidence in boxers and Boston terriers

Symptoms will vary depending on the actual location and size of the tumor but will often include dullness, staggering, pressing the head against a wall, walking in circles, convulsions, or just weakness in one or more legs.

In the hands of a competent veterinary neurosurgeon, many spinal tumors can be removed if detected before permanent damage has been done to the spinal cord in senior dogs.

Chemotherapy is sometimes needed for senior dogs and a brief period following such an operation. Brain tumors can only occasionally be removed, as most are inoperable due either to their size or location within the brain.

Such was the case with my dog TiTi, a gentle and ever so lovable standard poodle. Within a period of only one week he became suddenly aggressive, growled often at his owner, developed an insatiable appetite, and finally had a severe convulsive seizure.

In consultation with a veterinary neurologist, an inoperable brain tumor was diagnosed. Medication controlled the symptoms and improved the dog’s behavior for almost a month, then seizures started again, but with increased frequency and severity. Medication was ineffective at any dose and TiTi was euthanized.

This could happen to any dog but are most common in senior dogs.

Fortunately,senior dogs have relatively few disorders of the brain and spinal cord associated with the process of growing old. Arteriosclerosis, that bane of human aging and a primary cause of senility, is quite rare in dogs. Hence it is unusual indeed to meet a truly senile dog.

Cerebral hemorrhage, also called apoplexy or stroke, is likewise a very infrequent occurrence in senior dogs. Rabies is caused by a virus which is attracted specifically to nerve tissue and is transmitted by the bite of a rabid animal. However, there have also been rare reports in recent years of airborne transmission.

It has been traditionally believed for centuries that once symptoms of rabies develop, death is inescapable, and because of the hazard to other animals and people, senior dog are euthanized if they have not yet bitten anyone.

Recent reports of two human rabies cases which were treated successfully and survived the development of rabid symptoms, if confirmed, may possibly alter the present grim outlook for rabid dogs. With the extremely effective and safe vaccines available today to protect senior dogs, however, there is no excuse for you to ever have to worry about this disease.

Heat Stress and Senior Dogs

There is no excuse for heat stress ever occurring in senior dogs. No one questions your love for your dog, or he wouldn’t have survived this long. Just a little logical forethought during hot weather is all that is needed. Don’t take him shopping with you if your stores do not allow dogs on the premises.

Then you won’t have to tie him outside. If you are going for a drive, be sure he will be welcome at every place you intend to stop. If his outdoor exercise area is small, take him indoors before you leave the house for any length of time.

Those breeds more prone to heat stress (pug, boxer, English bulldog, Boston terrier, etc.) should have even normal outdoor activity severely curtailed during periods of hot sun and high temperatures.

In extremely hot parts of the country they may require air-conditioning. Certainly, free access to frequently changed cool water is a must.

As far as I am concerned, any dog, especially senior dogs, who suffers heat stress, and survives, ought to pack up and look for a new owner!

The muscles of most aged mammals lose much of their strength and actually decrease in size with each advancing year, including senior dogs. This is a normal part of the aging process and is to be expected. However, there are two as yet poorly understood muscle disorders which at first may look like normal aging weakness.

In one the dog develops weakness in the leg muscles during periods of exercise or other physical stress, may fall down briefly, seem to recover, get up for a short time only to fall down again. This is often seen in polymyositis, a disease which causes inflammation of any or all muscles in the body of senior dogs.

Polymyositis occurs mostly in late middle age and early old age, the most common of its several possible causes appearing to be a defect in the dog’s immune mechanism. Treatment with corticosteroids is quite successful despite the often alarming appearance of the dog. Occasionally the muscles of the esophagus are affected, making swallowing difficult, but even these respond.

Muscular dystrophy, the second disorder, occurs mainly in older dogs, bears some similarity to muscular dystrophy in people, and has a cause as yet unknown. Affected senior dogs develop a stiff gait as the muscles become progressively weaker and smaller in size. There is nothing we know of which will stop the deterioration or cure the disease. Treatment is palliative, trying to keep the patient as comfortable as possible, and is based on your senior dogs individual symptoms.