Dogs age into a fairly predictable set of problems, and nearly all of them are easier to manage caught early. The trouble is that dogs adapt quietly, so a lot of it looks like slowing down rather than like illness.
A monthly check at home takes ten minutes and gives your vet something far more useful than an annual snapshot.
Mobility
- Watch them walk, get up from lying down, and use the stairs. Stiffness after rest, hesitation before jumping onto the sofa, and taking stairs one at a time are all early arthritis.
- Feel the joints gently. Hips, knees, elbows. Heat, swelling or a flinch when touched means inflammation.
- A shuffling walk, dragging nails or an unsteady back end can be neurological rather than joint pain, and that is worth reporting specifically.
Arthritis in dogs is badly under-treated because owners read it as age. It is a painful condition with good treatment available, and it is worth raising rather than accepting.
Teeth
Dental disease is extremely common in older dogs and it does not stay in the mouth. Chronic infection there is associated with heart and kidney damage.
- Lift the lips and look along the gum line. Red, swollen or bleeding gums, heavy brown tartar, broken or missing teeth.
- Genuinely foul breath is not normal dog breath. It usually means infection.
Weight and condition
- Run your hands along the ribs. Findable with light pressure, not visible, not buried.
- From above there should be a waist behind the ribs.
- Unexplained weight loss is one of the more serious findings on this list and needs a vet rather than watching. Weight gain makes arthritis worse and raises the diabetes risk.
Lumps
Older dogs grow lumps, and most are harmless fatty ones. Most is not all, and you cannot tell by feel.
- Run both hands over the whole dog once a month, including the armpits, groin and neck.
- Note the size, whether it is hard or soft, whether it moves under the skin or feels anchored, and where it is. Writing it down beats remembering.
- Anything growing quickly, firmly fixed in place, ulcerated or painful gets seen promptly. A needle sample is quick and cheap and settles it.
Eyes and ears
- Cloudiness, redness, discharge, or bumping into things in familiar rooms. A bluish haze across the lens is often a normal age change, while a genuinely white cloudy lens suggests cataracts.
- A red, painful eye is urgent. Glaucoma is extremely painful and can cost the eye within a day or two.
- Check ears for redness, discharge or smell, and note if they have stopped responding to sounds they used to.
Drinking and urinating
Often the earliest sign of kidney disease, diabetes or Cushing’s, and one of the easiest things to quantify.
- Notice how much they are drinking. A dog suddenly emptying the bowl is telling you something.
- Notice how often and how much they urinate, and whether there is straining or accidents indoors from a house-trained dog.
If you suspect a change, measure it. Filling the bowl with a measured amount for a few days gives your vet a real number instead of an impression, and it is often what gets the right test run first time.
How to use this
Do it monthly, keep brief notes, and take them to appointments. Senior dogs benefit from being seen twice a year rather than once, and blood tests are worth doing while everything looks fine, so there is a baseline to compare against later.
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