Senior pets have, like people, an increasing prominent array of problems that develop simply due to age factors.
Many illnesses, or disorders, of the body’s systems become more common in aged animals. For example, kidney disease, arthritis, hyperthyroidism, cancer, eye diseases (glaucoma, cataracts, dry eye), congestive heart failure to name a few.
In November, we spend more time concentrating on our senior patients. We suggest doing more wellness screens in our seniors.
We believe cats over 10 years and dogs over 8 years are in the senior or geriatric period. At this age we recommend annual wellness blood screens, blood pressure evaluations (especially cats) and at some time a screening lateral chest and abdominal x-ray. The latter helps us by both screening for hidden abnormalities we can’t see, or feel, during an examination, but also gives us a data base of what the normal x-rays look like for your particular pet (e.g. heart, liver, kidney size and lung detail).
The wellness blood work gives us a good screen and data base for many organs in the body, as well as assessing the red and white blood cell numbers. Abnormalities could be developing for months to years before the pet gets either clinically ill or ill enough for the pet owner to notice.
Since pets can’t speak our language they may know they are ill well before we pick it up. The idea is to pick the abnormality up early, so that we can take early therapeutic or preventative measures such as simply switching to a medical diet. We recommend twice yearly physical examinations on dogs over 8 years and cats over 10 years for similar reasons.
Senior Cat Wellness Program
Senior Dog Wellness Program
Please call us at (613) 748-9820 for information on Senior Wellness promotions and to book an appointment during the month of November.
