I never really considered my, then seven-year-old, dog old until I took her to the vet and he made a comment about how she looked really good, “for a senior dog”. I was shocked and saddened. The thought that she could be considered a “senior”, at the age of seven, just didn’t seem fair. I mean, I had only had her for seven years. Didn’t I have at least fifty left?!
Aging dogs can be very tricky, and like everything else, different for each pet. I had a fourteen-year-old aussie/boarder cross, Kristy, who had a rough life; I rescued her from a local shelter when she was approximately two-years-old. She was at my house, when it burned down, and was pretty badly burned. (I will get into the details of that in a later blog). While she recovered from the exterior wounds of the fire, I think that it caused pretty substantial damage to her insides, yet she managed to live another seven years after that. Her body and mind started failing, rather quickly, and since I cannot stand to see an animal suffer, I, along with my husband and our middle daughter, had her put to sleep, here at the ranch. She had lived a long and happy life and was the absolute best trail dog I have ever known.
Now, I have Emma. I have talked about Emma quite a bit in my blogs because she is my sweet baby girl whom I have had since she was just a pup. She is a blue merle australian shepherd and has been by my side for fourteen years now. (Something about the age of fourteen?) About a year ago, she was diagnosed with arthritis so I put her on our Joint Flex, to help ease the pain and reduce the inflammation. You can hardly tell that she has any arthritis issues, at all now. Sure, she moves a bit slower and is not as apt to run after the ball, but I’ll tell you…pull up to the beach, where she grew up, and that dog turns three! She chases balls, in and out of the surf, runs in the sand, and begs not to leave. It’s beautiful and absolutely makes my heart sing. What I am beginning to notice about Emma, in her old age, is that her mind just isn’t “right”. She is super grouchy toward the other dogs and is starting to have accidents in the house. Emma has been housebroken since she was twelve weeks old and knows how to ask to go outside. She will walk right past me, to the door, and squat. I have started putting her out, even if she doesn’t ask, every couple hours or so; this is seeming to help. I also started giving her our Revive-It-All, to help with her mental clarity. I’ll keep you posted on how that is helping.
Contrary to Kristy and Emma, who both aged gracefully and slowly, I have Kate. Kate is a twelve year old mini-australian shepherd who has had zero medical issues during her twelve years. And I mean absolutely zero issues. She’s been one of those dogs that I figured would out live all of us. Well, in the past week, Kate has started showing some serious signs of declining. She is loosing weight, yet still eating, she moves very slowly, but not in an inflamed-joint ind of way, and she sleeps…a lot. I have an appointment with our vet tomorrow to see if they can determine what is happening with her. In the meantime, I have increased the amount of Cracked Cell Chlorella that I give to her knowing that Chlorella is great at removing toxins and it has been shown to reduce the size of tumors. If either one of those things are the problem, I am hoping to see an improvement in her. I will also wait to see what the tests show tomorrow. These signs happened literally overnight, so it is much different than what I have experienced with my other two fur-babies.
Bottom line is this, like people, pets can age in different stages and can show different signs. I think the most important thing to do is to keep nutrition in mind, each and every day, by feeding good food that has the fewest amounts of toxins possible. (Never feed table scraps to your dog!) It is also important to keep your dogs active and to be interactive with them. I have spent more time throwing balls, Frisbee’s, and sticks, than I can even count, and I am thankful for each throw. I think that it is also important to supplement your pet with whole superfood nutrition because most foods out there, simply don’t have that. It is totally worth the extra steps to able to watch your four-legged-loves live long, healthy, and happy lives!
Many blessings to you and your four-legged-loves ~ Tammy
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