Tips to Keep Arthritis and Eye Problems Away From Aging Dogs

The concept of aging gracefully is often attached with humans. However, can we make it true for our furry companions as well? Just like their human counterparts, dogs also go through the wear and tear of aging. Their bodies become weak, eyelashes grow grey, coat becomes dull, activity reduces and lots more to list down. As per parents, we would certainly like to see our pets as young and happening all the time. To give them that state of good health, we need to put some agile efforts towards our pet dog’s routine health care.

Well thought off efforts streamlined with the veterinarian’s guidance can help us keep our pet’s aging symptoms at bay. We can actually add more years to our pet’s life by taking little but timely measures. Some of the most common health problems of an aging dog are dog arthritis, diabetes, eye problems, intestinal problems, and kidney and liver problems. Well, as we take care of ourselves through various therapies, yoga, exercise and healthy life style techniques, we can also take care of our ‘would be senior’ dogs.

Tips of handling health problems in aging dogs:

Dog arthritis: Bone degeneration is an inevitable part of any aging dog’s life. He can suffer from arthritis that paces up gradually and results in painful joints and lack of mobility. Inflamed joints with redness, limping, irritation, lethargy are the common signs of arthritis in dogs.

How to keep arthritis away from pets?

• Just like us humans, we can also keep our pet’s joint healthy. We can add nutraceuticals in our pet’s food for complete joint care. Nutritional supplements that aid in building joint muscles, cartilage matrix, synovial fluid and ligament tissues help a big deal in keeping our pet’s joint active, agile and problem free.  
• Regular exercise and weight control are other factors that maintain flexibility in a dog’s joints. For larger breeds of dogs, weight control is necessary, as their size becomes the basic reason for extra stress on their joints.
• If arthritic problem is congenital in your pet then you must be proactive in taking care of him. Discuss with your vet about the precautionary measures. You can give a particular type of food for improving the pet’s metabolism. In addition, a fine balance of proper exercise and rest helps in keeping dog arthritis at a distance of few more years.
• Treat infections, local trauma and joint tissue damage at the earliest. Do not prolong it, as it will further deteriorate the dog’s joints. Timely treatment with routine care will dampen the chances of occurrence of arthritis in dogs.

Ocular problems: An aging dog may face the problem of blur vision, retinal degeneration, glaucoma, cataract and dry eyes. These are some of the basic eye related issues in aging dogs. Excessive sunlight, lack of nutrition, over exposure to sunlight, dirt and debris are some of the basic reasons for eye infections and deterioration.

How to take care of eye problems in aging dogs?

• Balanced diet, stress free life style, antioxidant supplementation, routine eye care, trimming of hair around the eyes etc. helps in preventing eye diseases in dogs.
• Glaucoma, diabetic cataract, pre disposed retinal diseases and other difficult diseases need to be dealt with more precision. Therefore, proper treatment by a vet is the only solution. Remember when you are dealing with the eyes, your vet’s guidance is the final word.

Many more stuff remains unanswered when it comes to health issues in an aging dog. For an elaborate account of liver, kidney and intestinal disorders in aging dogs please keep checking our upcoming posts OR visit our official blog: http://bestvetcare.com/blog/

Happy pet parenting!