Biggest fear regarding your pet's health....

[windycanyon]

I second the holistic approach and have had my crew on digestive enzymes for 12-15yrs or so now along w/ a few other good supplements. I think my biggest fear is not the disease itself but in being observant enough to know when to get to the vet in some cases. I had an issue last yr when I found a lump in my one girls upper gum area while cleaning her teeth. Would have been missed if I didn't scrape tartar, etc for sure. Ended up being low grade fibrosarcoma. Had laser surgery done and all is well. Another dog I know whose owner missed the earlier signs lost their dog as it becomes aggressive often w/ time.

I sat down at lunch w/a favorite vet of mine today at our show and was telling him about all this, coincidentally. Prevention and intervention.... so important. SO Easy to miss some things.

[POPTOP]

I second the holistic approach and have had my crew on digestive enzymes for 12-15yrs or so now along w/ a few other good supplements. I think my biggest fear is not the disease itself but in being observant enough to know when to get to the vet in some cases. I had an issue last yr when I found a lump in my one girls upper gum area while cleaning her teeth. Would have been missed if I didn't scrape tartar, etc for sure. Ended up being low grade fibrosarcoma. Had laser surgery done and all is well. Another dog I know whose owner missed the earlier signs lost their dog as it becomes aggressive often w/ time.

I sat down at lunch w/a favorite vet of mine today at our show and was telling him about all this, coincidentally. Prevention and intervention.... so important. SO Easy to miss some things.

Cannot stress how important knowing your dog is. You will know if something is off. With seniors, keeping tabs on lumps and bumps, keeping charts, along with your vet, keeping measurements. Subtle changes in character, activity, attitude can signal a problem, maybe not medical, but something that needs to be watched. Labs are generally so stoic a problem can get bad before outward changes occur. With Archie, a GSD, he is such a drama mama and weeding out what needs to be tended to from just being a GSD is challenging. I understand "drama mama" is a typical trait for GSDs.

Sometimes our day-to-day lives keep us so busy, small signs can be missed. Everyone should have a daily 100% dog time, clearing the mind and totally being all the dog we can, interacting with our pet. At its best, its fantastic fun and helps me stay in tune with our dogs.

Such great information being shared. Thank you, all of you.

[Dennis Thomas, DVM]

Great post from some very caring people. We all have very busy lives, but when we make it a point to spend time with our pets, fully in the moment, insidious problems will be detected. Otherwise, we don't realize the problem until it gets so large that it slaps us in the face. From a very holistic perspective, when we focus our intention on having a healthy, happy pet, then take the time to be with the pet regularly, life will let us know when there is a problem.. Much like a mother and her child, the feeling comes before the appearance. Awareness is the true preventative health care. Good job.

[Tanya]

Lots of great info here.

Living life with my first senior (i was out of the home mostly when the last family dog was old) and I find it all so very very hard. My biggest issue is - ENJOYING this time with Rocky. He is actually still very much himself despite it all.

Biggest current fear currently (and one I am having a hard time controlling) is he has LP. I read a bit too much in a LP group on facebook and am petrified he'll go into respiratory distress any second. and it's only early june I am afraid to walk him at all, but feel the need to walk him so that he doesn't lose the ABILITY to walk (at least until it's actually summer with heat). His back end is going but that's less of an "emergency" situation. We're supporting it as much as we can.

Also, choosing drugs/supplements/rehab. There are SO MANY. which is good, but it is hard to know where to start. the number of option just for joint supplement is insane. Price all over the map. And it seems different things work for different dogs.

And the entire CCL injuries so many dogs are having. It doesn't make sense that so many dogs are going CCL injuries.

[Dennis Thomas, DVM]

Hi Tanya. Thanks for responding to this thread. LP is a very common problem in senior Labs and one that has some controversy around it. I can just give you my opinion as I have worked on these sweet dogs for many years. I don't believe in tie-back surgery as there can be real complications secondary to that, especially if the dog likes to swim. I do believe that the thyroid function can be a factor, so if dogs are hypothyroid, some improvement can be seen when they get regulated. If you know a good acupuncturist, this seems to be the best modality for seeing improvement. AP does a great job of restoring nerve function. From a holistic perspective, I would ask you to take an objective look at your "fearfulness" when it comes to this. Fear is our conditioned response to a situation that we don't want. For some reason, we have been led to believe that we need fear to energize us to do something, like protecting our dog with LP. That is not only untrue, but fear actually gets in the way of intuitive guidance. From this level of awareness (fear not blocking), then we are deeply connected with our pet and we KNOW what is in the pet's best interest, not what we believe. The mind is so unreliable when it comes to the unknown.

I would love to teach the entire world how to muscle test (energetic kinesiology). It is so simple and so accurate. It is a method of divination that enables us to determine what is good for us or not. It can also be done on our pets. If you are interested, Google some YouTube videos instructing you how to do it. Try it on some simple things until you realize how accurate it is. Then, you can test anything that you are going to take into your body or your pet's body. I test everything before sending it home with my patients. Then, you can take your dog into the health food store and test any supplement that you are interested in giving him. Using this, you will know what will benefit him and what won't.

CCL injuries in Labs is the most common musculoskeletal injury we see. Dr. Barley Slocum, the vet who invented the TPLO surgery for cruciate injuries, used to believe that Labs had an unnatural slope cranially to the tibial plateau. His theory was to correct this anomaly and that would re-establish the normal kinetics of the knee. Maybe. He died just after he patented the procedure. From a Chinese medicine perspective, these dogs tear their CCL ligaments due to drying and fraying of the fibers in the ligament. The liver energy is responsible for tendons, ligaments and all connective tissue. The liver becomes deficient in blood and drying occurs, leading to tears. Any vet that does lots of knee surgeries will tell you that the majority of torn CCL ligaments are not acute, rather due to chronic fraying of the fibers and then a tear occurs. This is why so many of them already have arthritis starting when we go into the knee.

I try to focus on preventing this dryness from occurring. I do this by feeding a fresh, wholesome diet that not only fortifies blood but increases fluid content (fresh food is 85% water and dry kibble is about 10% water). It also establishes better lean muscle to body fat ratio and strengthens the supporting muscle tissue for the joints. Hope some of this helps. Thanks again. You have a super dog.

[voodoo]

not fearful of much anymore after serving in afghanastan...but I try to do right and stay positive.

[Java]

"What is your biggest fear when it comes to taking care of your pet's health?" Maybe I can help you with that in a way to prevent things happening instead of waiting until it does. Thanks.

I think I've become one of those people who adopt older dogs, so mostly I fear delaying the inevitable decision unnecessarily and, in doing so, cause my dog discomfort or pain. I absolutely don't want to miss the signs of pain.

Thanks for sharing your expertise with us. Your explanations & suggestions are most appreciated.

[barry581]

I can't say I worry about anything specific, but after what happened with Bruce, my 19 month old who passed away in his sleep due to an undetected heart issue, I kinda worry about the things I don't know or can't see. Bruce was completely asymptomatic, ran, swam, and retrieved like any normal, active Lab. There have been times since then that I've actually panicked a bit when Sophie was sleeping really deep, and I couldn't see her chest moving, and I have to wake her up to make sure she's ok.

[Berna]

Most of my questions have been answered, thank you very much for doing this!

I am most interested in prevention. For example, is there a way to prevent kidney and liver disease? Are there any supplements that could help? I do regular bloodwork 2x per year, I feed raw and I supplement with turmeric paste, coconut oil, salmon oil, apple cider vinegar and kelp/spirulina. I do feed blueberries occasionally (most of the time he won't eat them and I don't blame him).

Thank you!

[janedoe]

My greatest fear came true when I was told by an emergency vet that Argos was fine and demonstrating no obvious symptoms with normal vital signs, being sent home and fifteen hours later he was dead. So, basically, trusting a vet who turns out to be incompetent. That's my greatest fear.