Thursday, July 4, 2013

Dusti my senior dog

Senior dogs are wonderful but require extra care and consideration. Dusti is having a harder time with stairs, his hips are bad but that doesn't seem to be the hold up, he sees fine but I think his depth perception seems to be deteriorating. Dusti will stand and bark at the bottom of steps till I come and he can see me and sometimes I have to walk down the steps and show him the first step so he can negotiate the rest.

Dusti can no longer tolerate the grooming table, he has trouble standing on it for a long period and balancing. In order to accommodate Dusti's limitations I groomed him on the floor in the living room today. He needed his coat clipped again and I let him lay on the floor and I slid him around our helped him flip over till I could get all the angles. His skin is thin and his muscle definition is gone so getting a smooth clip can be challenging.

I take his coat off in the summer because of the heat, it also allows me to judge his weight and the conditions of his hips. We make sure that Dusti does not gain too much weight so that his hips are as unstressed as possible.

Dusti still plays with the other dogs, he'll run around the yard sometimes and he has a great appetite and is able to go potty when he needs to. He still likes a good snuggle and pizza and does his best to get up and down the stairs. I remember bringing him home as a puppy, he turned out to be the best most well behaved dog and really smart but he was a naughty puppy!

It's tough to see your fur friend get old but there are good days still ahead and I will enjoy every moment of them.

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