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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Dogs killed and ate almost all of their prey’s carcass including the entrails, skin, and even bones.

Domesticated and dependent upon their owners for food, today’s dogs are amply fed, right to the point of obesity, yet they often develop bad overall dog health due to a number of deficiencies from their improperly balanced diets.

————————————————————–

Dog Health Secrets You Need To Know!

“In This Shocking FREE Video Report You Discover Why 87% of Dogs Die Too Early & 3 Easy Things You Can Do Today To Stop It Happening to Your Dog”

Dog Food Secrets

————————————————————–

The advent over the past decade of nutritionally “complete” or “balanced” commercial dog foods, and their increasing acceptance by dog owners and veterinarians alike, has drastically reduced the incidence of dietary deficiencies. Today such nutritional problems are seen mostly in dogs who are fed homemade diets or a diet of table scraps and leftovers.

Poor nutrition, whether from dietary deficiencies or excesses, has a significantly negative effect on your dog’s ability to remain in good health. Resistance to infection is lowered, as is the production of antibodies, allowing infectious agents to multiply rapidly and spread.

The resulting fever, diarrhea, or other manifestations of illness, more than likely will make your dog less interested in eating, thus increasing the state of malnutrition and is concerning to dog health.

It is not uncommon to find senior dogs less adaptable to changes in diet, routine, or environment.

For example, my dog always loved riding in the car, bouncing about with a sense of excitement. He never missed a thing that passed by; now that he is older he prefers to lie quietly on the seat snuggled up against me or else on the floor. He may even get an occasional upset stomach and throw up while riding. And he steps in and out of the car with considerably greater care!

In the past it never seemed to bother him if I occasionally got home late for his supper. He’d jovially greet me at the door with little more than a “Hey, what’s up?” and race you for the food dish. Now I find that he has thrown up small amounts of yellowish-green stomach fluid due to the increased acidity of a stomach which contains no food.

I have found that leaving a small amount of dry food for senior dogs when I go out may solve this upset.

Speaking of stomach upset, whenever I had parties, he always joined in the fun and most of the time survived the party foods given him by my well-meaning guests.

Now he shows less interest in the goings-on, preferring to be by himself in a quieter part of the house. If senior dogs indulge in any party food, they almost always has some digestive disturbance.

The daily grooming patterns begun in earlier years should be continued throughout a dog’s lifetime. It is my firm belief that all dogs, with the possible exception of some show dogs and those with certain skin diseases, should be combed and brushed every day of their lives with a metal comb and a wire-bristle slicker type brush. Combing should be done first, as its purpose is merely to remove tangles and separate the hairs so the slicker brush does not get caught in them. This is followed by the brush which should be used in firmly applied, long, slow strokes. The object of the brushing is to get the wires down to the skin, which is where the dirt is, to remove that dirt and the dry scales of dead skin, but be extra cautious when performing these grooming tasks on senior dogs.

A similar process can take place in the skin covering the hock joints, but this is less frequent. The rate at which these callouses form is directly proportional to the size and weight of your dog. They are rarely seen in Chihuahuas or other toy breeds, regardless of age, but occur with great frequency in German shepherds, Dobermans, Newfoundlands, Great Danes, and most other giant breeds as early as five years of age.

As a rule they cause no problems. If they seem inordinately dry or hard, gently rubbing in a small amount of white petrolatum ointment once or twice a week should keep them soft enough to avoid any difficulties. Once in a while they do get so hard that they start to crack, developing raw fistulas which readily become infected. Your dog will lick at them and compound the problem by irritating the skin. When senior dogs have callouses that reach this stage, they need prompt veterinary attention.

Primary arthritis develops from the normal wear and tear of a joint with time and age. While seen occasionally in very old dogs, it is not the commonly observed arthritis that it is in people. The bulk of  arthritis in senior dogs are secondary to disorders which happened or started earlier in life.

The following are just a few of the many such disorders:

• Obesity in any breed but especially in the large and giant breeds.

• Mechanical trauma such as falls and jumping mishaps.

• Torn ligaments in any joint but especially the stifle joint in toy or miniature poodles.

• Chronic dislocating patella (slipped knee cap), most common in toy breeds.

• Osteochondritis dissecans, a disease of young dogs.

• Hip dysplasia.