Just like ourselves as dogs move in to old age they start to slow down and things don’t work as well as they used to!
The start of old age in dogs depends on their size. For large dogs old age typically starts from about 7 or 8 years whilst medium sized dogs it’s around 9 or 10 years.
With our Golden Retrievers old age starting has been easy to spot – the colour of the fur on their face particularly around the eyes starts to lighten. They develop a spectacled look!
Stamina and strength start to wane, joints start to stiffen up and ache with arthritis.
It pays to keep an eye on the signs of ageing
As your dog ages it’s needs and abilities will change. One of the first things that can happen is they put on weight!
As they age their energy expenditure goes down. If you don’t adjust their feed type and quantity then those unused calories they chomped their way through go to fat just the same as it does for us!
A young dog will need a diet high in carbohydrates while a dog going in to old age needs a diet with lower carbohydrates, less fat and with more protein and fibre.
Letting your dog put on weight in old age is only making life harder for it – joints are put under more stress as is the heart.
The picture above is of Mica in Oct 2020 when she was in her 10th year. It was during that year we saw a noticeable change in her physical strength and mobility. She was slowing down on walks – where she would previously run across the fields it became short burst interspersed with fast trots. She started to show signs of stiffness in her hips especially when getting up from a rest or sleep.
Some of the changes in your dog happen relatively quickly. In 2019 our dogs were with us on our camping holiday in Cornwall. Mica was quite happy clambering over boulder and stony foreshores to get on and off the beaches we were using. She might well have coped with it again in 2020 had we been able to get away (Covid lock downs put and end to that!) but for sure she wouldn’t cope with it 2021.
There are so many things that can change in a dog as it ages and there’s a lot of info available on line. I did come across one entertaining article that you might enjoy – 7 Things Your Senior Dog Would Like To Tell You
Joint Stiffness
In late spring 2020 we took Mica to the vets because she clearly had some discomfort in her hips. She checked out OK and the vet considered it just to be old age arthritis and some inflammation in the joint. She was put on a course of Matacam for the inflammation which did the job.
Mica has really benefitted from a suggestion made by a friend when we were talking about her vet visit. They suggested that we look into giving her a joint supplement in particular a brand called Yumove. It is something they give to their Golden Retrievers from the age of about 10 before any joint issues appear.
We’ve been so pleased with the impact of putting Mica on this supplement – as far as we can see she is far less stiff after lying down and more agile and energetic when out on her walks. For the reasons we’ve decided we will in due course, include affiliate links/ads to Yumove. Why affiliate links you might ask – well if you do decide to try Yumove yourself using our link we would get a small commission which would go towards the costs of running this site.
