I'm delighted to introduce you to Dr. Patrick Mahaney, a veterinarian and certified veterinary acupuncturist who focuses on integrative veterinary medicine. We recently met at Blogpaws and I loved his fresh approach to veterinary medicine.
Since our theme this month is senior pets, Dr. Mahaney's first guest post discusses his top senior pet health tips, all of which I wholeheartedly agree with, having cared for a senior cat with health issues in recent years. Over to Dr. Mahaney...
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When is your pet considered a senior? No simple answer applies to every cat, dog, or other companion animal, yet I consider pets having achieved seven to nine years of age to have entered the realm of senior living. If you follow the conventional consideration that one pet year equals seven human years, a seven to nine year old pet falls between the ages of 49 to 63.
Some pets show physical signs of aging faster than others due to poor genetics, sub-optimal nutrition, harsh environment, or disease. Other pets gracefully sail from adulthood into the golden years with little obvious decline in youthful vigor as a result of the combination of good genes, healthful diet, temperate environment, and minimal episodes of illness. Inherently, the body’s ability to recover from illness, heal injuries, and fight infectious organisms wanes with time.
What is the secret of keeping your senior pet healthy? Maintenance and promotion of optimal health is multi-factorial and relies on the combination of efforts from the pet guardian (you) and veterinary medical care providers.
As your pet’s health advocate it is vitally important to take an educated and proactive stance in promoting your pet’s optimal vitality regardless of life stage.
Here are my top senior pet health tips.
Schedule Regular Veterinary Physical Examinations
Senior pets are more prone to periodontal disease, arthritis, cancer and other potentially life threatening ailments affecting the kidneys, liver, and endocrine system (adrenal, thyroid, and other gland). Manifestations of these diseases can be subtle or arise when significant damage has already occurred.
In attempting to prevent the development or worsening of such conditions, it is vital that your senior pet has a physical exam performed by a veterinarian at least every 12 months. Senior pets afflicted by disease should be examined more frequently, such as every 3-6 months. Your veterinarian's physical exam may pick up on findings that otherwise would have gone unnoticed to the untrained eye or hand.
Be prepared to provide your veterinarian with day to day observations of your pet’s food and water consumption, bowel movement and urinary habits, vomiting, diarrhea, coughing, sneezing, and sleep and energetic patterns. Additionally, keep a concise record of any supplements, medications, Chinese herbs, or other products regularly used.
Immediately Address Health Concerns
When an issue regarding your pet’s health occurs or your veterinarian discovers a abnormality, efficiently and safely resolve the issue.
One of the most common diseases I see in clinical practice is periodontal disease (unhealthy teeth, gums, and supporting structures). I am continually dumfounded by pet owners electing to address periodontal disease only when it progresses to the point of oral malodor, lethargy, inappetence, tooth abscesses, or internal organ (heart, lung, kidney, liver, other) damage.
Pet owners should take steps to prevent periodontal disease from occurring by brushing teeth on a daily basis and providing appropriate objects on which a pet can chew to reduce plaque and tartar accumulation.
In cases where preventative measures cannot are insufficient, resolving periodontal disease with an anesthetized dental is the ideal choice. Although non-anesthetic dental cleaning does some good in removing visible accumulation, it does not permit subgingival (under the gumline) scaling, tooth extraction, or evaluation via radiography (xrays), and leaves the airway (trachea) susceptible to bacteria aerosolized during the scaling process.
A pet is never too old to undergo anesthesia, yet they can be too unhealthy. In order to prepare a pet for anesthesia and as part of a routine senior wellness protocol, diagnostic testing should be routinely performed.
Perform Routine Diagnostic Testing
Although a veterinarian can garner much information from a pet’s history and physical exam, diagnostic testing yields a more accurate representation of overall health. Blood, urine, and fecal testing, radiographs (xrays), ultrasound, and other means may be needed to establish a definitive diagnosis.
I recommend senior pets have baseline blood, urine, and fecal testing at least every 12 months. A minimum database of blood testing and ECG (electrocardiogram), and other case dependent diagnostics should be performed within 24 hours of a planned anesthetic procedure.
The true value of diagnostics lie in early detection of disease processes so that appropriate treatment can occur before progression occurs.
Provide a Whole Food Diet
I have seen the unfortunate trend of sick or geriatric pets being put on a whole food diet only when a serious diagnosis has been established or when prehension of a commercially available dry food no longer occurs.
I strongly feel that pets should be fed less processed sources of nutrients instead of by-product and contaminant laden, heavily denatured dry and canned foods. In feeding appropriate quantities of whole food sources during the juvenile life stage, many preventable diseases, such obesity, arthritis, and diabetes are less likely to occur during adult and senior years.
Tailor Your Pet’s Environment and Lifestyle to Suit Geriatric Needs
No longer is your senior pet the nubile puppy or kitten of yesteryear, therefore their ability to navigate the environment through which they once gracefully strode is also compromised. Slippery floors, steep stairs, lofty sleeping quarters, and extremes of heat, cold, dryness, and humidity are a hazardous to an elderly pet.
Enhance your home and yard environment to appropriately suit your senior pet and reduce the likelihood that preventable injury of illness will occur.
Related Posts:
September is Senior Pet Month at Embrace Pet Insurance
Guest Post: Top 5 good things about old dogs
Guest Post: Senior Pet Health Tips
Other posts by Dr. Mahaney
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Dr. Mahaney is a veterinarian from the University of Pennsylvania and a Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist, having been inspired by his own chronic pain from Intervertebral Disc Disease to provide accupuncture to his veterinary clients. In addition to Dr Mahaney's house call integrative veterinary medicine business, California Pet Acupuncture and Wellness, he sees patients on an in-clinic basis at Veterinary Cancer Group in Culver City, CA.
Dr Mahaney writes a veterinary column (Patrick's Blog) for www.PatrickMahaney.com and contributes to a variety of media, including Perez Hilton's TeddyHilton.com, Fido Friendly, Veterinary Practice News, Healthy Pets and People with Dr Patrick on OutImpactRadio.com, and MSNBC Sunday with Alex Witt and Career Day. His first book, The Uncomfortable Vet, will be available in 2012 through Havenhurst Books.
(photos courtesy of Dr Patrick Mahaney)
