Senior Dogs: Aging Gracefully
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By Dr. Benjamin Hart (DVM, PhD, ACVB) |
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Thanks to improvements in nutrition, medical care and protections from
accidental death, our companion animals, like people, are living longer.
Just as with people, senior status in dogs is accompanied by behavioral and
physical changes.
Geriatric medicine is a field that deals with age-related arthritis,
hormone imbalances, visual impairment and loss of hearing. Senior status in
dogs is also sometimes accompanied by behavioral changes which may include
disorientation, loss of recognition of human family members, onset of fear
reactions or loss of house training.
Research is rapidly progressing on preventing or improving the behavioral
changes through dietary supplements and pharmaceuticals.
Despite some drawbacks to having a senior dog around the house, there are
very rewarding aspects. To many caregivers, older dogs are less excitable
and more loving than younger dogs. In compensation for the additional time
and expense required, many caregivers feel that old dogs are more faithful
and grateful for their care than younger dogs.
The following are some suggestions for making the care of senior dogs
easier for you and your dog:
Visual impairment and hearing loss are common. Because deaf dogs cannot
hear verbal commands, hand signals should be used. For partial deafness,
clapping the hands or stomping the floor is a way of gaining the dog's
attention.
People are surprised at how well blind or almost blind dogs navigate a
house and may even fool people who don't know about the blindness. Verbal
commands can be used for dogs that are partially or completely blind.
Dogs that are impaired in both hearing and sight may require communication
through touching parts of the body. You can teach some commands, such as
gently tapping the head to mean "come". Remember, the dog can tell where
you are by your odor plume.
In older dogs there may be some slippage in signaling to go outdoors, so
one should remember to take the dogs outdoors more frequently as a
preventative measure. Another idea is to place the sleeping bed near the
outer door.
In many cases, older dogs may start moving around in the middle of the
night, depriving human family members of a good night's sleep. One way to
address this issue is to move the dogs sleeping quarters away from the
bedroom, to minimize disturbance to others.
By now you see why it is not uncommon for caregivers of aging dogs to see
some similarities between the signs shown by their dogs and a relative
suffering from early or mild Alzheimer's disease. The cognitive iimpairment
we see in elderly dogs is associated with some of the same changes in the
brain as in humans with early Alzheimer's disease, including the
accumulation of a protein referred to as beta-amyloid deposits.
We have an ongoing clinical trial at the UC Davis School of Veterinary
Medicine to assess the effects of dietary supplements, including
anitoxidants and substances that protect brain cells, that show promise in
laboratory studies to iimprove behavioral signs of cognitive impairment in
elderly dogs.
Vist the web site (www.vmth.ucdavis.edu/home/beh/dogs/agingdogs).
Reprinted from CCAH Update, Vol. 10, No. 2, Center for Companion Animal
Health, UC Davis.
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