This is a very common question that I get quite often and it is one of the best thing that you can do for a senior dog and that is to get a puppy. Here are a few reasons why: Activity: Often, having a new puppy around the house causes the senior dog to be more active,...
Blog For Our Paw Pals
Blog For Our Paw Pals
When will vet clinics open back up?
While this isn't specifically senior pet related, I thought that it would be worth discussing in a blog post. A lot of things have changed in the last year and vet medicine was not spared. Almost as quickly as lockdowns started, most vet clinics began to adopt a...
What are the benefits of feeding your dog or cat prescription food?
I think that this might be one of the most controversial topics that we cover in vet medicine. If you ask 10 veterinarians, you will get 10 different opinions on the benefits (or not) of good prescription food. Some prescription diets are designed to work with...
How do dogs and cats die of old age?
It is very important to remember that old age is NOT a disease! We covered the importance of understanding this in an episode of The Senior pet podcast and there is a ton of great information in that episode, I would encourage you to check it out if you haven’t...
What is a high BUN and how do I lower it in my dog or cat?
BUN is a value that shows up on almost all of our routine and non-routine blood panels. It stands for Blood Urea Nitrogen. Urea is a waste product composed of nitrogen and other compounds and it is filtered out by the kidneys. There are a few reasons we can see the...
What makes your dog smell like urine?
If I smell urine on a dog or cat, there are often a couple of causes that might generate the less-than-pleasant smell. The first, is that the pet may have a urinary tract infection. Typically, these are female dogs or cats and the urine that is collecting on the hair...
Are Flea treatments harmful for senior cats and dogs?
This is a very common question that comes up often and it isn't exactly a black or white answer. For the most part, the flea medications that you purchase from your vet are going to be safe and effective. However, occasionally there are some that we want to stay away...
What can I do about my elderly dog wetting his bed?
Fortunately but unfortunately, this is a very common occurrence for our senior dog population. The term for this is urinary incontinence which implies that your dog loses control of its bladder while they are asleep. Incontinence almost exclusively happens when an...
Is there a cure for Chronic Kidney Disease in cats or dogs?
Unfortunately, we cannot cure chronic kidney disease but we can absolutely manage it. The definition of CKD is that we have lost functional use of the kidney due to scar tissue, nephron loss, etc. Contrast that with acute kidney disease which is where the kidneys...
What do most pet dogs ultimately die from?
I think this question most likely applies to our senior dogs. In that case, there are probably two good answers to this not-so-uplifting question. The first and foremost answer to this question is that cancer is the number one reason why we end up putting older dogs...