How to best live life with an elderly dog ?

[Tiddleandplonk]

Hello, we have a 13 year old dog. She used to love commimg on days out with us , overnights in camper van, walks .
We live rurally and do many places to go.
She now just seems to want to stay in either sleeping in her bed or next to us.ahe still follows me around the house, but is happier if I am sat still.
We hate leaving her as she has always come with us . But she doesnr travel well now , stands still onnwalks and wants to go home. Wd try and fit round her but once a week we really want to go for a long walk wothout her. We also have a weeks holiday. She would hate to come in the van with us but equally would hate staying with out daughter innthat she would miss us ( sits lookimg for us when we did a trial of this before for one day, and she has never been in kennels. Those with elderly dogs .. how do you do it and manage to do things ? Any tips please?

I don't have any practical advice on this but didn't want to read and run. This sounds like such a difficult situation, would something like a doggy pram help? Our neighbours used one in the last year of their ddog's life, still went on normal walkies route but with ddog in pram.

It's difficult, sending love to your ddog though

Can you take long walks locally and take her with you in a doggy rucksack carrier ?

She has arthritus and am.not sure that a rucksack would be comfy .. good idea though.
I so want to let her have a quiet life . Alongside that.am.feeling quite housebound . She jusy does not like crowds , or leaving home much anymore . She is a anxous dog and am usure if a pram would make her panic . She heavy breathes when she is stressed. I wish id got one earlier as unsure if she wd adapt at rhia age.? I wo der if pet places allow them to be tested or rented out .

We took ours with us and just did little walks and pottered. He wanted to be with us more than anything. We just worked around him for the last 18 months of his life. He was anxious if left and sore if he did too much so we adjusted to him . He was our boy, we miss miss him.

Ah of course you do . I miss her when we do go out. I just want to go out sometimes , but mostly we are adating round her . She does not want cuddles anymore ;but likes to.lie near.i sort of miss her old ways,but i want her to have life in the best way for her .

And i do have to go to work at times !

@breadfortea

We took ours with us and just did little walks and pottered. He wanted to be with us more than anything. We just worked around him for the last 18 months of his life. He was anxious if left and sore if he did too much so we adjusted to him . He was our boy, we miss miss him.

I could have written this myself. Ours gradually slowed so we adjusted to what he could do. He passed away a year ago. We miss him every day.

Is she on any pain relief? Metacam made a huge difference to the quality of my old girl’s last few months.

She is not on metacalm but is on joint pain relief in her food. It seems to help. She just seems too tired to want to walk. I suspect a natural heart problem . I have not had this confirmed as yet. She had massive anxiety at the vets , to the extent we think it may harm her .she heaves with fear.the vet assistant had to stop a procudure once( teeth cleaning ) due to what was called anxiety ++++
Part of me wd rather have a shorter happier life ( for her) than regular vet visits and meds ( meds cannot be disguised in cheese etc. She delicately eats food and spots all things . We wd have to use an aid if she needed meds ).
My main concern is spotting sifns of any pain. She is the sort of dog that squeals if you bump.into her so.i really hope that i would know .

I would have a chat with your vet and check for any pain or issues that could may be contributing to her mood. Correct painkillers can make a huge difference to dogs.

We have just lost our oldie and we did make big allowances for him. He could not walk with the other dogs so he had his own bimble walk which involved being driven to a new location and then just standing and sniffing the air and having a sniff of the ground for a bit - then back for lovely long sleep [sleep]

He did prefer very short sessions out and about but was happy to watch the world go by rather than actively join in.

There was usually someone about so our dog did not get left often and he was happy in his own surroundings. However he did have to be left when the younger dogs needed more exercise and training than he did.

Can you get a dog sitter that she gets used to, so when you go away she is happy to be left with them? Build up the trust a bit maybe short visits that are always include the best treats ever. Then the sitter could stay and you can all enjoy your holiday away.

If you are going for long walks, which you must do without feeling guilty, if she has his potter before hand is she happy to be left for a while? If her separation anxiety has got worse recently again a good reason to speak to the vet for a full check up.

Bless her I love the oldies but they are not with us long enough

We have the same issue with our 14 year old working cocker spaniel. He has arthritis and his back legs collapse at times. He has gone downhill rapidly in the last six months and is slightly blind and deaf. We are going away next week and he is coming with us but this years holidays will be much different to other years where he walked for miles with us. We are planning on a gentle morning walk with him and then leave him to sleep in our holiday accommodation while we go out for a longer walk. I will make him a den of his favourite bed and bedding so he sleeps soundly until we return. This time of his life is definitely the hardest and I would do anything to go back 14 years to have our time with him again. But his tail is still wagging, he will have his customary holiday ice cream and I would rather have him with me while we were away than leave him at home.

Thanks for your answers. I think am stuggling to accept this process. Like when we go for a walk we miss her so much . It is leaving part of the family at home. Thankyou for the sitter idea. I see the logic of it,but I am usure if I would do it as I know she just wants her people. When I go out amd my dh is in , she lies in the hall waiting for me to return .

I don't know if it's possible where you are but can you ask for a home visit from the vet? It only takes a couple of minutes to check for a heart murmur, which can be controlled with medication - could make a big difference to her quality of life.

Have you discussed the situation with your vet? I thought we'd arrived at the end of the line with my DD15 a few months ago. Arthritis had reduced my active and slightly cheeky terrier-cross to a sleeping machine. After a round of Carthrophen shots and weekly laser treatments she's like a puppy again!

We bought a dog pram - a low entry one they could access from front or rear. Waterproof. Could be attached to a bike or used as pram. It was life changing for our elderly dogs. Folded up to go in the car. Got a few odd looks, but 99/100 thought it was a brilliant idea. Dogs got fresh air, but could travel easily and safely in comfort when they got tired.
I though it was brilliant as we still got to walk everywhere we wanted and I knew the dogs had quality time outside.

Yes i will talk to vet tommorrow and ask for home or in car assesment. Please cd you tell me brand of that dog pram please. We live rurally and next to cliffs but can walk on some pavement areas.

Very similar to the paw hut ones now available. Would definitely suggest you google and look at some pictures. We had large collie x dogs and bought the largest we could find. But, you may have a smaller dog and could manage with something smaller.
Lots of show dog people use them - so it’s a large and varied market catering to all types of dogs and their requirements.

Reading with interest. Our boy is 10 next month (we only adopted him in January) and has started refusing walks... halfway round. I wonder if he's started with some arthritis because he's started holding his paws in the air in turn and I've checked and his pads are fine.

Feel a vet visit coming on because I can't carry a 23kg pup 2 miles back to the car like I had to do yesterday again.

At the end of ours life we just lived around her to make her last few months comfortable and happy. We just stayed home and didn't go anywhere other than work, well I went out and dh worked from home.

Metacam really helped ease the pain and the one time we ran out and didn't re-order the prescription on time you could see the pain on the face.

We decided not to treat the illness because of vet anxiety too, we just wanted the last few weeks to be happy ones.

Btw. Dog trollies/peaks are rugged enough to go off tarmac - we used ours every where.
I did buy a radar key so I could get through wheelchair gates rather than try and manhandle every over stiles/kissing gates.
Regularly did 10miles or more. Dogs lived until they were 16 and had strokes.

Think about the dog sitter idea. I know it is hard to leave her behind but you may actually be adding to her life. If she makes a new relationship with a lovely dog sitter that will be adding a new and different part of the day to her life. Extra people to love her and be there for her every need

We used a doggy hut with our elderly dog, we did do the south west coast path with it. Some hairy times around Tintagel! You will still need to check your dogs pain level as they can be a bit bumpy on rough ground and it can take a while to get them used to it.

You can hire out buggies in some areas, some are capable of off-road adventures, 3 wheeler types with proper tires. Its best introducing it slowly, can take the wheels off and leave indoors to practice going in it, then progress to wheels on and slow movement before actually going on a short trip.

Check out Canine Arthritis Management caninearthritis.co.uk/

They have also recently made 2 owner courses to make the somewhat overwhelming amount of information into a more easy to follow format. cameducation.teachable.com/p/home
They're a charity set up by a vet & the money from these is going back into funding the huge cost of renovating the website.

Holly's Army - owner support group
www.facebook.com/groups/2161091580843717/
CAM equipment & reviews
www.facebook.com/groups/2161091580843717/

CAM also have some great informative talks with various specialist on Facebook group which are also found here.
www.youtube.com/channel/UC8VGH14Y0d3oVFKlJuoBuGQ

There's so many different medications and other treatments available. It's easy to miss dogs chronic pain as just aging & slowing down from own experience as they tend to be stoic.

Cartrophen course as PP mentioned is 4x weekly injections quick much like a vaccination jab so could be done in carpark which can be repeated upto 4x a year its helpful for some and little effect for others but isn't too expensive to try a course.

Librela is new monthly injection that seems to be having some good results, it's a monoclonal antibody that binds to Nerve Growth Factor, a key player in OA and in doing so reduces pain. It functions like naturally occurring antibodies, with minimal involvement of the liver or kidneys in its metabolism and elimination from the body. Some owners have been shown how to inject it themselves so don't need to go to vets as regularly although you'd still need some check-ups required to meet the prescription legality.

Don't underestimate the benefits of a good dog walker or sitter.

I sound like I'm bragging (and I'm not, honestly) but I'm a dog walker and lost a clients' dog to "old age" last week. I looked after him up to and including his last day and the bond we had was amazing.

My clients' were hugely comforted by the fact that I was around to take him to the toilet, clean up any accidents and just give him some much-needed company. We even went on short walks up until an hour before he was PTS.

The more people in your dogs' life who he trusts and who can look after him, the better. Please consider looking for a sitter who can come in and help you.

Thankyou all . Brilliant advice.

Duggies in buggies maybe useful for advice too
m.facebook.com/groups/366856060427902

I have a pair so leaving them for few hours wasn't so tricky and had a great dog walker to pop in. I'd definitely agree to finding someone so you can go out for few hours without worry and It's such a relief to have that person when some non avoidable event or emergency crops up. Plus the more regular the occurrence of spending time with another person the easier it gets for them to accept as being normal.