Senior pets are sort of our specialty. Yes, we love what herbs and nutrition bring to our practice, but it is often our senior pets who benefit the most from our sort of care. If you want your beloved pet to live forever, you are not alone! You are our prototypical client. You love your buddy beyond words, and you want them to live the best possible life for as long as possible. We are here to help you do just that. Now, we can’t control everything. There are factors out of our control like genetics, environment, and just pure happenstance. But there are a lot of things you can do to help achieve your goals of a long, healthy life for your best buddy. Here’s what we recommend:
1. Twice a year examinations. It sounds so simple, but we consider it key to wellness, especially since our animals can’t exactly speak to us and tell us they think something is a little “off”. We need to detect things as early as possible, and a thorough exam is the best way to do this.
2. Wellness screenings. For us, this is a full blood panel, urinalysis, tick screenings, thyroid test, and blood pressure. It’s amazing how many disasters we can prevent by catching things at the earliest possible time. Also, because we have access to so many supplements, nutritional treatments, and herbs, we can often steer the body back in the right direction and prevent a small abnormality from becoming a true disease.
3. Use care with what you put in their bodies. For well vaccinated pets, we typically start reducing the vaccines as they age, focusing on their individual lifestyle. We also try to minimize chemicals and even sometimes find we want to detoxify the chemicals out of their bodies to keep them well and prevent more problems from coming.
4. Maximize nutrition. As pets age, they often have increased nutritional needs. Also, their preferences can change. As pets age, we generally move them further away from processed kibble and onto minimally processed foods. This list includes canned, homecooked, frozen raw, dehydrated, fresh foods. Leaner foods can help keep weight down (great for joints) and keep muscle mass up (good for strength in our geriatric pets). We have a list of our favorite foods, focusing on what tends to be palatable, affordable, and reliable for the most sensitive patients. These are not the only foods we like, but it’s a good start, and it doesn’t need to be as expensive as you think.
5. Keep them moving. Exercise is good for aging pets just like it is good for us. But to keep them moving, we need to keep them feeling good. Traditional drugs can be effective but also can carry side effects. Before we get to the point where we need drugs, we can often figure out how to make the body healthier, which naturally helps our pets feel good and move well. Examples, depending on where the problem is located or what tissue is involved, may include joint supplements, natural anti-inflammatories, acupuncture, chiropractic, massage, and laser.
6. Tap into other anti-aging supplements. Like what? Well, antioxidants and omega fatty acids for brain health, mushrooms to prevent cancer, CoQ10 and herbs for heart health, and supplements to slow kidney disease.
7. Consider cancer screening bloodwork. For 15 years, we have been testing pets for the inflammatory markers that indicate cancer may be able to grow in the body. What’s even better is we know what supplements to use to impact those markers and get the immune system and body in better condition to actually prevent cancer. We can also use this testing to see what went wrong in the body to allow cancer and use those tests to help us design an anti-cancer plan.
8. Don’t give up! There are so many wonderful ways to keep our seniors living long healthy lives! Age is a state of mind. If you and your pet are still wanting to live your best lives, we are here to help you do just that. The sky is the limit. Let us help you minimize your stress and worry and maximize your time with your pet.
Let us set you up with a doctor with expertise in your area of concern. Sometimes this can even be done in a phone consultation to help you long distance. Whatever your need, we are here to help!
Sincerely, Dr. Nicole Sheehan, DVM, CVA, CVCH, CVFT, MATP
Founder and Owner of Whole Pet Veterinary Hospitals