There are many different breeds of dogs in the world. They range in size from 3 pounds to 200 pounds. The huge variation in size must be considered as they age. Small breed dogs (Chihuahuas, toy poodles, etc) live longer than large and giant breed dogs (Great Danes, Irish Wolfhounds, etc.). Small breed dogs are considered geriatric at 9 to 11 years of age while giant breed dogs are geriatric at 4 to 5 years. Therefore, we use a sliding scale to establish when your pet is a geriatric.

We hopefully can help your pet age gracefully, improve life span and quality of life with our geriatric health program. By identifying diseases early, much can be done to slow their progression and improve your pet's quality of life.

The most common diseases are:

1. Kidney disease or failure

2. Heart failure

3. Neoplasia

4. Osteoarthritis

Early identification requires a thorough geriatric work up. This would entail a complete physical examination, nutritional counseling, weight assessment and laboratory testing. We would suggest:

1. CBC - complete blood count. This will give us indications of anemia, infection, leukemia, low platelet and low iron levels.

2. Urinalysis - helps monitor kidney disease and diabetes and rule out cystitis (bladder infections).

3. Chemistry panel - looks at enzymes associated with different body organs, (e.g.) liver, pancreas, kidney) electrolytes and protein levels.

4. T4 - assesses thyroid function.

5. Blood pressure - rules out hypertension

6. Heartworm test - rules out heartworm disease - possible cause of sudden death.

7. Radiographs - assesses heart shape and size, health of lung tissue, liver and kidney size, presence of tumors (cancer), and enlarged lymph nodes.

8. Ultrasound, ECG and echocardiogram - these tests will further look for tumors (cancer), variations in normal organ size, heart health and hypertension (both pulmonary and circulatory).

After we receive the above test results we may need to run additional tests or make changes in our nutritional counseling.

Our pets unfortunately age at an accelerated rate compared to us. (7 to 10 years / calendar year). For this reason we recommend a complete physical exam every six months. We will review past test results and abnormalities and make recommendations for further follow-up testing on an individual basis.