What are the best tips for helping my senior dog age gracefully?
Updated On September 23rd, 2025
Any tips to make sure my dog ages gracefully?
3 Answers
Most Helpful Answer
Published on March 9th, 2018
We can always help our four-legged friends age as gracefully as possible by staying on top of their wellness care. This includes regular visits to the veterinarian for physical exams and blood tests, as well as staying active and healthy at home. Keep your dog at a healthy body weight. Overweight dogs have additional strain placed on their joints, which can exacerbate existing arthritis, and are at a higher risk for developing diabetes or heart disease. Feed your dog a high quality diet and avoid offering too many treats or table foods since these can quickly pack on the pounds. A general guideline is that treats should represent less than 10% of your dog’s total food volume. Routine veterinary care is also critical for picking up on small problems before they become larger concerns. Although age is not a disease, our aging dogs are more prone to developing a variety of health conditions. Once your dog reaches “senior” status, it is recommended to increase the frequency of visits to the veterinarian from once a year to every 6 months. For an average-sized dog, this happens at 7 years of age, but for giant breeds like Great Danes and Newfoundlands, this occurs early, at 5 – 6 years of age. During this time, your veterinarian will be able to perform a full physical exam and routine blood tests to assess overall health of the heart, liver, kidneys, eyes, mouth, and joints.
362Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Related Answers from Veterinarians
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Published on May 11th, 2019
Do yearly health checks with the vet, more often if he's sick. Make sure Oscar stays up to date on his vaccines, flea and tick medication, heartworm treatment, and deworming medication. Get him yearly dental cleaning, scaling, and polishing with the vet. Dogs can develop many diseases when they get old, and some are arthritis, liver disease, heart disease, diabetes, kidney disease, and cancer. I hope this helps!
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
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Published on May 8th, 2019
Hello, and thanks for your question. Regular preventative care, exams with your veterinarian, and maintaining a healthy body weight are the most important things to keeping a dog healthy! Keeping Oscar up to date on vaccines, heartworm prevention, and flea & tick prevention will go a long way towards protecting him from infectious diseases. Routine prophylactic dental care under anesthesia will help keep him more comfortable and prevent oral infections - your vet can help guide how often this should be done, as it differs a bit from one dog to another but most dogs benefit from having this done annually. If Oscar hasn't had bloodwork done recently, that's a great way to detect disease processes early rather than waiting until he's sick or symptomatic. Arthritis is common in aging dogs, and your vet can evaluate if Oscar would benefit from joint protection supplements or pain medication to keep him comfortable. So, in short, seeing your vet for routine wellness exams is my strongest recommendation - since your vet will be able to evaluate Oscar's most pressing issues at any given time, and help guide you through his care. And, I always tell my clients that if you can do one single thing to help a pet age well - it's keep them at a lean, healthy body weight! Here's a helpful article that discusses many aspects of caring for a senior dog. https://www.petcoach.co/article/caring-for-your-senior-dog/ Hope this helps!
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
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