How to Keep Your Senior Dog Healthy- Top 7 Tips for Happy Aging Pets

Do you have a senior dog? These are seven things you can be doing right now to help your aging dog. Are you looking to learn more about natural pet health and wellness? You've come to the right place. Click the link to subscribe to Veterinary Secrets. If your dog is seven years or older, he or she's considered a senior. This isn't an exact science. The larger dogs, they age much sooner. The smaller dogs, they tend to have a longer lifespan. But as we age, we get things like gray hair. Tula, believe it or not, she's the ripe old age of 12. Even her muzzle here, it's gotten a lot whiter. Tula is quite healthy now and I'm super thankful for that. But something can happen at any point in time. And more than anything, this video is a reminder to myself, like seven things I should be doing slightly differently to help my aging dog. You can apply the same principles to your dog. Number one, you need to manage your dog's pain. It's really important that your dog is comfortable whether you're using an alternative or a conventional treatment. A 12-year-old dog like Tula, she's going to have some joint wear and tear. She's lost some cartilage. She has some degree of arthritis. Oral joint control supplements like glucosamine, chondroitin, MSM, that's in my ultimate canine. 95% curcumin isolated from tumor. That can provide some great natural pain relief. Doses of 250 milligrams per 50 pounds of body weight once to twice daily. The CBD Camodile is proven to be a great natural painkiller. We're looking at dog doses of three milligrams per 10 pounds of body weight once or twice daily. Tula has a fair degree of anxiety. So not only does the CBD help her for pain, it also helps her feel much more comfortable, feel way less anxious. Topical pain relief, DMSO applied topically. It's a great option. Make sure you have lots of dog beds in your house. You want to make sure that wherever your dog is lying down, it's comfortable. Tula has beds everywhere. And if you've tried everything alternative, nothing else seems to be working, you know, consider the NSAIDs or the conventional anti-inflammatories. It's really important that your dog is not in pain. Number two, actively engage in touch therapy in terms of massage, acupressure. And you're doing this for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, you can help your dog naturally relieve pain at least once a day. You know, you're just gently massaging your dog's rear legs, putting moderate pressure over the muscles, parallel to the backs of the spine, right? Making these circular motions, just loosening up those tight muscles. And then acupressure, where you're putting your finger pressure over top of key acupuncture points. And that's also helping her dog. One key point, for instance, located right here called the yin-tang point, naturally way to relieve anxiety. I'll do this for 30 or 60 seconds, especially if Tula is a little bit nervous, she just naturally calms down. Her point for natural arthritis relief, the BL60, the KI3 point, we're on this web of skin in between the Achilles tendon and the bone, the outside with my thumb, that's a BL60 point, the inside, the KI3 point. You can just hold that for 30 to 60 seconds, do that twice a day. It's a great way to naturally provide pain relief for your dog. The touch therapy is not though just for pain relief or helping with anxiety. It's also just helping you better bond with your dog. Just having that touch is great for you. It's also really good for your dog. I do have other videos on acupressure, on massage, and I'll link to those videos in the description box. Number three, support for the brain and exercise. The big thing we're trying to do here is keep your dog moving as well as keeping him or her mentally engaged. It can make such a big difference for your dog actually having a quality life as they're aging. Tula loves a little lamb chop here. It provides more mental stimulation for Tula than I can imagine. It keeps her moving in the house when I'm working, what I'm doing right now. It keeps her happy, so it keeps me happy. I like watching my dog run around. So often we just focus on the physical things, the things that we can see externally, yet what's going on in here, what's going on in there, makes such a big difference for their quality of life. So really make that a priority as well. Number four, it's all about diet. Diet is pretty critical to having a healthy senior pet. Tula still is getting some kibble, but it's the kibble that is high in protein, has moderate good quality fat, relatively low in carbohydrates. I supplement Tula's kibble with additional protein. She really likes additional chicken. At least once a week she's getting some prepackaged frozen raw. And one feeding tip is just raising your dog's food bowl. Make it easier for them to eat. It's a lot easier for many dogs if their food bowl is raised. They get to use gravity to eat. Now they have less acid reflux. What do you think? Do you want to eat your food there? Look, you don't have to go so far down. Adding a bit of moisture to your dog's kibble, that can make it easier for them to chew it if they're still chewing kibble and provide additional moisture. Once again, that's also key. Many of our dogs are dehydrated, not drinking enough. It's a great way to add in that additional fluid. Number five, low cost dietary supplements. There are key additional supplements I'm adding to Tula's diet you should also consider. Additional essential fatty acids. EFAs are probably the most studied supplement in veterinary medicine, can make a huge difference for helping your dog's aging brain, helping your dog with arthritis, helping your dog with skin disease, potentially being helping for cancer. Tula gets 500 to 1000 milligrams of our Supplementer Jones's Ultimate Omega-3 Formula for dogs and cats. Many of our older dogs get constipated. Adding an additional ground flax can really help. One teaspoon for 20 pounds of body weight daily, be really beneficial. Flax is also a good source of the omega-3 fatty acids. It's also rich in ligands, which have been shown to be preventive against some of the cancers. Last but not least, the really good bacteria, the probiotics. They can impact so many parts of your dog's health, not just their intestinal health. 80% of the immune system is located in the intestinal tract, so you're supporting their immune health. You can aid their skin health by providing good bacteria in their gut. You can aid their mental health because of the gut-brain connection. You can get yourself a good probiotic supplement or just get a good quality whole fat yogurt, rich in good probiotics. One teaspoon of the yogurt per 10 pounds of body weight daily, that could really help your aging dog. Sleep, number six. Some of our older dogs, they have trouble getting to sleep, staying asleep. They may be pacing at night. There's one thing you can do that can make a huge difference. Pick up this, the sleep hormone. This is melatonin. Melatonin is safe and effective for so many dogs that have sleep disorders. Melatonin is safe and effective for many of our dogs that have sleep disorders. Now, it's also been shown to modulate some of the pain pathways. For our dogs that are in pain, they may experience less pain while on melatonin. It's also now being used for many of the cancers. They know that melatonin works really well in conjunction with many of the other treatments and can make those treatments much more effective. In general, it's a great supplement to consider and add that in to your senior dog's regimen. Dog dose, one milligram per 10 pounds to a maximum of six milligrams given one hour before bedtime. Number seven, this is probably more geared towards you than it is your dog, but for you to be present. Your dog's getting older. You're busy. You got a video to edit or whatever else. You just ignore them while he or she is sleeping on the couch. You know what? You may have less time than you think. Something can happen at any point in time. So what I'm saying is just be conscious of that and just be present. Just try to be more present with your dog. If you have time to do so, number one, it's going to be beneficial for your mental health. And more importantly, it's going to help your dog. They're going to feel more connected to you. And if your dog feels more connected, he or she is going to be happier. She may have a better immune system, may be able to better fight off that potential disease that's lurking around the corner. Maybe this is just a reminder to myself to not get caught up in the ongoing busyness of life. Just be a little bit more present with what really matters, including spending time with my dog.