By: Dr. Kathryn Stoltzfus

We all know that our pets age faster than us but we can now do a lot more to help them in their “super-senior” years. Noone likes to think of their pet as geriatric, but no matter how we label this period they have some unique medical issues that can be easily addressed to help them live as long and healthy a life as possible.

Just like human healthcare, the advances we have seen in pet health care means that our pets are living longer. In fact, based on the last AVMA survey, 39% of the owned pet population is over 7 years and this percentage will continue to grow. Our pet’s lives are divided in four distinct periods – pediatric, adult, senior and geriatric. Looking at the chart below we can see that senior is the transition from adult to geriatric. This is the time when your vet will discuss starting to monitor bloodwork, monitor weight and dietary changes.

“Old-age” is not a disease but it does represent the effects of time on the body, mind and internal organs. This bears no absolute relationship with true (chronological) age. This is why it is important to have a full evaluation by your vet to assess not only the physical but also the mental health of your pet.

As we know from humans, 40% of the aging process is genetic, this is pre-programmed and until gene therapy is widely available we can not change this. But, we can change/help the other causes of aging – oxidative (free-radical) damage, accumulation of toxic substances in the cells and immune system compromise.

One of the easiest measures of your geriatric pets health is their weight – are they too heavy or have they lost weight, or lost lean muscle mass? As pet’s age they decrease the amount of saliva they produce making the kibble less appealing. Their teeth may hurt, they may have some undiagnosed medical problems or they may have lost some of their sense of smell or taste buds. Some of these are easily fixed – add water, add flavor enhancers, but some require more in-depth work up to find the cause. They will often have loss of hearing and sight; this can lead to behavioral changes. They may not hear you and stop responding to your call or if they can not hear themselves, they can start barking all the time. Hearing loss can be helped with high pitched whistles in the early stages but unfortunately these higher frequencies are lost with time. There are normal aging changes in the lenses that need to be differentiated from cataracts. Just like in people examination of the retina and the intra-ocular pressure is an important component of their geriatric assessment.

As your pet ages they may have less tolerance for the heat and the cold. In the hot weather they may not be able to pant and cool themselves, leading to heat stroke. As their body composition changes they may have problems keeping warm and need that sweater or coat. We need to make sure that we monitor our pet’s response to the change in weather – providing cool or heat as needed.

Loss of lean muscle is a problem in the geriatric pet. This can be due to loss of muscle fibers from inactivity, low protein diets (unless medically supervised) and decreased sensitivity to the energy supplies. This can exacerbate lameness and weakness in the geriatric patient. Rehabilitation therapy, balanced protein diet and even creatine supplements can be used. Comfort is also very important – consider a heated padded bed for your pet to help ease the pain of joint disease. To help with arthritic changes we have many options to consider – pain medications such as Rimadyl™ or we have even started using some of the human medications such as Tramadol and joint supplements such as Cosequin™ or Dasuquin™.

Your pet’s skin may show signs of aging – becoming dry and scaly. They may be graying of the hairs on the face and the nails become longer and more brittle. This can be helped with less bathing, post bathing conditioner, topical emollient (oils) or humectant (moisture) sprays. The geriatric pet is more prone to skin infections and as such any lesions should be checked as soon as possible.

As you can see there are many ways that your vet can help your pet. As a geriatric they age at a rate of 1year (dog/cat) to 4 years (human), so they should really be seen 2-4 times yearly for monitoring and a full exam, including blood pressure and eye pressure checks. Your vet can discuss the best monitoring for organ health as well as the best diet and supplements to help your pet live as long as full life as possible.

Dr. Kathryn Stoltzfus, BSc, BVSc, MRCVS graduated from the University of Liverpool in 1994 and is currently an Associate Veterinarian at Windcrest Animal Hospital. She has a special interest in feline medicine and surgery, geriatric medicine, and general surgery and is a fellow of the AAFP. Dr. Stoltzfus was inspired to be a veterinarian after reading James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small. The most memorable part of her career was when she helped remove a large hairball from an elephant’s stomach. The most rewarding part of her job is knowing that everything we do to help the owner/guardian provide the best care for their pet and seeing those pets grow from kittens/puppies and the relationship that develops with the whole family. Dr. Stoltzfus is a member of AVMA, AAFP, Cornell Feline Health Center, DVMA and AAHA.

WINDCREST ANIMAL HOSPITAL
3705 Lancaster Pike
Wilmington, Delaware 19805
(302) 998-2995
24 Hour Emergency

TALLEYVILLE VETERINARY HOSPITAL
3001 Concord Pike
Wilmington, Delaware 19803
(302) 478-0648

HOCKESSIN ANIMAL HOSPITAL
643 Yorklyn Road
Hockessin, Delaware 19707
(302) 239-9464