Coping With Aging Pets
AnimalCare 
May 20, 2012 
AnimalCare, NGOs 
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Bobby will be 16 years old this October. That is pretty “senior” for a dog, so as with senior people, old age comes with all kinds of problems.
Sometime last year, Bobby was really going down. He had lost his appetite and had become extremely scrawny. Home-cooked food changed that and turned him around, so that problem is taken care of for now. He also started acupuncture and from weekly, it became fortnightly, and now, it’s just one session per month as maintenance.
Since he became blind gradually due to cataracts, he hasn’t been able to detect his way around too well, especially after we moved to this new house, so he pees and poos wherever he likes. That is something we have to deal with but it isn’t so hard. It just involves cleaning up after him every day, which is okay.
But Bobby has a very sensitive stomach and the wrong foods will trigger off loose stools, so I have to be really careful with what he eats. The other day I gave him some canned food, and it triggered off another bout of loose stools, but quickly reverting to home-cooked food did the trick and the loose stools stopped within a day.
The wonders of getting the food right!
But now, a new problem has developed. With the increased wellbeing obtained from acupuncture, Bobby has reverted to his strong-willed self (he has always been a very strong-willed dog all his life – “I do what I want”) and he has decided he doesn’t want to be handfed anymore.
But he cannot see where his food bowl is!
Previously, when he first became blind, the cats took him to his foodbowl and that was fine. Later, the cats got lazy and I would hold him and put the bowl near to his mouth. Still later, I had to handfeed him before he would eat.
Now, he has decided he doesn’t need anyone to take him to his bowl and he wants to look for his bowl himself!
So, it’s quite a long process whenever it is meal-times for him.
If I carry him and feed him, he gets so offended, he buckles up like a horse and kicks away (and he is VERY strong). But if I’m in a rush, I really have no choice.
But today is Sunday and I’m not going anywhere for the next two hours, so we do have a choice today.
While the cats were eating, I laid out Bobby’s food in his bowl.
He has no idea where the food is, and he doesn’t want anyone to lead him to his bowl.
So he wanders around, until….(sometimes this takes 20 minutes to happen)…
He sees his food.
And while he is looking for his bowl, I need to make sure the cats don’t get to it first. People like Bunny, Cow and Tabs can always do with seconds and thirds, or even fourths. These are my biggest eaters.
This morning, it only took him 10 minutes to find the bowl, and he started eating. Yay!
By the way, we have always trimmed Bobby’s fur ourselves as he hyperventilates when anyone else touches him. So, we don’t really do a very good job, but never mind.
The cats went to play on the rattan trunk after breakfast while the dog eats.
Eh…what is happening now?
No, Bunny, no!
Had to drive Bunny away, and thus starts the entire process of waiting for Bobby to come back to his bowl. If you tried carrying him near his bowl, he gets very offended and would go away. So we need to work around that. We just need patience, that’s all.
He finally found his bowl and yes, he finished his food.
YAY!!
Round One is done for the morning.
But wait, Cow has just sprayed on the door, and Tabs is climbing the mosquito netting on the kitchen window, trying to dig a hole in it to escape.
So yes, the morning has just begun.
Have a good Sunday, folks!
P.S. Dr Susanna says Bobby has some sort of “Alzheimer’s” syndrome. I think senility may be more accurate, so she will look up some herbs for him. And talking about seizures (referring to Ah Wong’s case), Mac (our other dog who passed on at 13 years old) had seizures too, in the last few years of his life, but we did not opt for medication. Whenever we saw him throwing a seizure, we would just hold him, massage him and he would come out of it. There was no frothing at the mouth, so maybe it wasn’t a serious case. With age, comes all kinds of problems. That’s life, folks.
Source: http://myanimalcare.org/2012/05/20/coping-with-aging-pets/
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