Q: How can I make my senior pet more comfortable?
A: There are many ways to help keep senior pets more comfortable and help improve their quality of life during their golden years:
- Routine: A lot of older pets, especially dogs, prefer having a regular routine that lets them know what to expect. Predictability for essential times like feeding, walking, and play time can help senior pets who become anxious easily or those who are developing cognitive dysfunction (senility) feel like they have some control over their environment.
- Mental stimulation: It is very important that senior pets still have mentally stimulating activities throughout the day. Older pets may be more limited in the amount of physical activity they can still keep up with, but there are other options. Dogs with mobility issues may still enjoy going for sniff walks to check out all the smells outside of the house. Play sessions may need to be shortened to accommodate current abilities, but can still serve as bonding time for you and your pet. If your pet enjoys being brushed, massaged, or just petted these can also be ways to reduce anxiety; sometimes the quiet times spent receiving undivided time from an owner are the times our pets look forward to the most. Food puzzle toys, rotated regularly, can be an enjoyable way to feed meals and snacks, giving older pets time to engage in problem-solving scenarios. Cats can be more difficult to provide mental stimulation for, but small condiment cups with favorite treats can be hidden around their frequented areas to allow for easy hunting activities; the difficulty levels of hiding spots can be increased as your cat gets more accustomed to this game.
- Night lights: Changes in the eyes of our senior pets are a natural part of aging that can make getting around in dimmer light and and at night more anxiety-inducing and challenging. If you block out the light from windows in many of the rooms in your home, as many do through the hot Arizona summers, even navigating around during the day can be more difficult. Consider the pathways through your home that your pet frequents the most, and place motion-activated LED night lights in those areas if the motion-activation will not frighten your pet, or leave LED night lights plugged in where needed. Turn on porch lights or take a flashlight when you take your older dog out at night, even if it is just in the backyard.
- Bathroom hygiene:
○ More frequent bathroom breaks may be necessary for some senior dogs. Mobility and vision issues can result in senior dogs waiting as long as they can to go outside to urinate and defecate, causing accidents when they wait too long and cannot make it outside. Some dogs need their owners to take them out every few hours and right before bedtime to prevent them from finding places in the home to eliminate. When inappropriate elimination starts to occur with a senior pet we need to be more patient and understanding, and may need to go back to basic house training methods like taking high-value food or toy rewards outside with us during bathroom breaks. Pets are not alone in this issue: that is why we have senior human products like Depends!
○ Senior cats may need litter box adjustments made to compensate for decreased mobility. Many litter boxes have openings more than a few inches from the floor, making them too difficult to climb into. Enclosed litter boxes can also be too
small to allow senior cats to comfortably turn around inside, leading to frustration. You may need to find larger litter boxes, consider removing the hood from enclosed boxes, or make your own litter box by cutting an opening into a plastic storage container. You may also need to start scooping the litter box more often to allow a senior pet to move around in the box without stepping in waste clumps and piles. Providing more litter boxes can also help provide more clean litter surface area for use.
- Arthritis management: Senior pets are just like humans in that they frequently develop arthritis as they age. Approximately 80% of dogs over 8 years of age have arthritis; about 60% of cats over 6 years of age and 90% of cats over 12 years of age have arthritis. Unlike humans, though, they do not complain and frequently the signs of pain are subtle enough that many owners just think they are just part of aging, leaving our senior pets to suffer in silence. These signs include stiffness when first getting up, reduced activity level, moving slower, and trouble getting up on furniture and into vehicles. Many of the ways to help keep arthritis pets moving better are the same regardless of species:
○ Comfortable padded bedding can relieve pressure on achy joints, but make sure that bedding is not so soft that it is difficult to maneuver around on. There are many different orthopedic bed options for pets, but you don’t have to spend a fortune. Second-hand crib or toddler mattresses are less expensive options for larger pets, or for pets that like to sleep together. Folded blankets may be a favorite option for smaller pets.
○ Heated beds or heating pads can help reduce joint aches, especially in colder climates or at night. Make sure to place a blanket or towel over the surface of human heating pads to avoid burns that could occur in older pets that sleep deeply and do not move around much, and ideally use a heating pad with an appropriate shut-off time to avoid electric fire risk. Heated electric pet beds and thermal blankets are also available in many sizes.
○ Joint supplements like glucosamine/chondroitin with MSM and omega-3 fatty acid supplements may help some pets with mild signs of arthritis, and are available over-the-counter in forms that are much more palatable than human versions.
○ Veterinarians have more prescription medications and advanced treatment options available to manage arthritis in pets than ever before, so do not hesitate to talk to your veterinarian about the options that are best for your pet’s health needs.
○ Alternative treatments for arthritis like acupuncture, laser therapy, physical therapy, massage, and chiropractic care can also help reduce pain in pets. Your veterinarian can provide referrals to reliable providers.
○ Rugs or yoga mats can be used to provide more traction on solid surfaces, especially tile or wood flooring.
○ Pet stairs can help smaller pets continue to get up onto furniture, or chests, ottomans, or similar furnishings can be placed strategically for larger pets. Small cat trees can help cats get up into bed with us in a way that most cats readily accept.
○ Exercise is still important for older pets to maintain muscle strength. We frequently assume that when our older pets start moving less it is okay to let them lie around more, but doing so can result in loss of muscle mass and muscle strength that will make arthritis even more painful. You may not be able to take your older dog for a 5 mile run, but low impact exercise like going for regular walks at a brisk pace and swimming in the warmer months will help keep your pet moving better longer. Older cats may not be able to zoom around after toys like they used to but many still enjoy shorter or slower play sessions a few times a day.
○ Weight management is also important for senior pets, even though that is everyone’s least favorite topic. Keeping pets at healthy weights has proven in studies to both increase the lifespan of dogs and cats by an average of 1.5 years and reduce the number of health problems they have to manage in their golden years. Decreasing calorie intake for older pets as they become less active is important, because extra weight on achy joints does not result in happier pets. Getting older pets who are starting to collect extra love handles to lose weight can be a challenge, but will significantly increase their mobility, energy levels, and comfort.
- Simply talking to your veterinarian about any changes, even when subtle, in your senior pet is extremely important. Age itself is not a disease, but many diseases become more common as our pets age. Veterinarians can identify many disorders before they cause problems in our older pets by performing annual blood and urine tests, allowing us to come up with strategies to treat or to slow down many diseases. Some diseases, like kidney disease, are common in older animals, and mitigation strategies are much more effective than trying to manage an end-stage illness. Many older pets develop diseases that require anesthesia to surgically correct, and as medicine has advanced for people it has also advanced for our pets to provide safer anesthetic options. It is better to have a problem addressed in a senior dog earlier instead of waiting a few years until the problem is much worse and even more health challenges have occurred. None of us get any younger if we wait!
