frail dogs

  • Canine Cognitive Decline Guidelines

    When I saw the headline that an international working group recently published canine cognitive decline guidelines, I thought — “perfect timing” — since we adopted a very old, frail, and often confused dog a while back + our other dogs are getting older too. When I read that the guidelines included a diagnostic flowchart, I got super excited. Except, now that I’ve read the paper and looked at the flowchart, it’s not as helpful (to me personally) as I’d hoped. That said, it includes good info about behavior changes to monitor and how to rank their severity over time. Toward the end, I include details and accommodations we’ve made for the Old Man Dog.

  • Frail Dogs

    With my recent fall, hospitalization, and orthopedic trauma surgery, I found myself both annoyed and amused at how the human medical staff often treated me like a VERY old lady. They even sent a social worker to ask me about my normal life, before the injury, such as if I could do things like bathe and dress myself, cook and feed myself, etc. Giggle-snort. I mean, yes, I’m kinda old, but I’m not THAT old. So this work from the Dog Aging Project at Texas A&M University to find ways to identify frail dogs caught my attention since chronological age alone isn’t an effective enough predictor in assessing the health and potential risks as our dogs age. Based on frailty scales created in human medicine, these veterinary researchers promote similar strategies for our dogs. I also wax a little thoughtful on the idea of life-space.