Get quality care for aging pets

Dr. Marty Becker M   /  McClatchy Newspapers

With special veterinary care early on, your aging pets can live in health in their golden years. (File/Associated Press) About Becker Dr. Marty Becker is the veterinary contributor to "Good Morning America" and hosts "Top Vets Talk Pets" on www.healthradionetwork.com. He is also author of "Fitness Unleashed: A Dog and Owner's Guide to Losing Weight and Gaining Health Together." Write to him in care of McClatchy-Tribune News Service, 700 12th St. NE, Suite 1000, Washington, DC, 20005.

While some pets live to a healthy old age, with very few breakdowns along the way, most experience increasing health problems along life's journey. The health issues span from mild aches and pains to serious problems, such as heart disease and cancer – as dog years fly by.

To catch problems early on, call your veterinarian if you feel a lump, witness shortness of breath, appetite changes or weight loss, or if your pet is drinking or urinating more than normal.

While you can't reverse the hands of time for your beloved pets and cloning remains more rhetoric than reality, there's much you can do to help your pet's golden years to be filled with health, happiness and comfort.

Good health begins with regular veterinary checkups. In fact, recent studies now support twice yearly wellness visits to prevent undetected health threats as the best medicine for all pets (www.npwm.com).

When your veterinarian examines your pet, he or she probably will cover from the tip of their nose to the tip of the toes, nose to tail, outside and inside, and often will recommend an "inside look" with convenient in-clinic lab tests of the blood and urine that give same-day results on the function of the pet's internal organs. Today's modern veterinary practice also will check your pet's blood pressure and eyes, listen to the heart and may even recommend more sophisticated tests, such as an electrocardiogram and ultrasound if the initial examination points to something potentially more serious.

But rather than wait and react to your pet slowing down with age, you can take a positive, proactive approach to helping your senior pet live a happier, healthier full life with good preventive care such as:

•Meals that heal: Ask your veterinarian about specially formulated pet foods like Hill's Prescription Diets that help spare the kidneys and slow the progression of some serious illnesses or conditions such as liver or kidney failure, skin problems, brain aging, arthritis, even cancer.

•Keep your pet moving: Provide daily exercise to help keep your pet trim and flexible and delay age-old problems such as arthritis and digestive problems. It also keeps pets mentally alert and more energetic.

•Watch the weight: One out of two pets in the United States is overweight and obesity leads to heart disease, diabetes and arthritis. In fact cats with diabetes often can get it under control just by shedding the excess pounds.

•Fill 'em with fiber: Many of the senior foods have an increased levels of fiber to help aid digestion and prevent constipation.

•Trick of the treats: Rather than treats that are loaded with empty calories and fat, switch to baby carrots or frozen green beans (if needed, dip in a nonsaturated-fat nut butter, where a little dab will usually do it).

•Add some antioxidants: Some premium foods have lots of added antioxidants that have been proven to protect against heart disease, help with arthritis, and slow brain aging, among other things.

•Keep the water bowl full: Many pets drink less as they age and don't get around as much as they used to, so keep multiple water bowls around the house and keep them full of water. Or invest in a water fountain with fresh, oxygenated water that encourages pets to drink more.

•Help the kids baby the older pet: Older pets often don't hear or see well and can get a bit cranky and intolerant. While your older cat may become somewhat of a recluse, everyone needs to be considerate of an older dog and give them a wider berth and a courtesy hello (vs. surprise) so as not to get bitten.

If there was an overarching mantra that veterinarians recommend for older pets it would be to "keep them comfortable." From carpet runners on slippery floors and ramps for stairs to extra padding and heat for the pet's bed, we want to provide quality care and comfort, not just basic health care to our beloved senior pets who've given us so much.