by Nancy Houser

Created on: November 18, 2008

Similar to an elderly person, many elderly dogs have difficulty in digesting food that once maintained their health with no problems. This makes proper feeding of an elderly dog essential to the dog's health as they become older. Weight control for the elderly dog becomes much more difficult, accompanied with a wide variety of special health needs that arise due to an improper diet. The majority of dogs maintain a normal ability to digest essential nutrients-energy, ash, protein, and fat, yet age-related changes that develop over the years make nutrient requirements very important, which may mean modifying the diet of the elderly dogs.

Larger dogs live shorter lives, so special diets for large elderly dogs usually begin when they reach five years of age while smaller dogs should have a special diet beginning around eight years of age. Age is important as the digestive system of elderly dogs cannot work as efficiently, and is less able to care for the body's total system in order to prevent disease or infections. Improper diets will bring about more trips to the veterinarian and higher levels of medical care, with a reduced quality of life for the elderly dog that could result in death.

THE ELDERLY DOG AND WEIGHT ISSUES

Some elderly dogs do not have the appetite as when they were younger, needing to be tempted more than usual to eat what is in front of them. This may bring about a weight loss vs. overweight of the elderly dog, brought about by being less active with less energy. A tight balancing act, an easy way to check out the dog's weight is by placing the palm of the hand over the ribs. If the ribs are prominent, or are easily seen, the elderly dog is considered underweight. If the dog is too thin, a vet exam is essential to eliminate any underlying problems of the animal's health, especially if there is more urination than normal or incontinent issues that are beyond normal.

Regardless of the popular opinion that elderly dog are usually overweight, a study by D.S. Kronfied, S. Donoghue, and L.T. Glickman in "Body condition and energy intakes of dogs in a referral teaching hospital" shows that 16 percent of the 12-year old dogs in the study were underweight while only 5 percent were overweight. With numerous studies since then demonstrating that various breeds of dogs and their daily energy intake decline as they age, it shows that age brings about a fall in energy expenditure, requiring some form of energy-dense diet.

WHY ELDERLY DOGS REFUSE TO EAT

As dogs age,

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>