Senior Canine Nutrition

This article originally appeared in the June 2019 Pets in the City Magazine. 
Your fur baby will forever be a puppy in your eyes, but you are starting to notice your dog is slowing down, less energetic, maybe she has gained a few extra pounds (haven’t we all?), and instead of leaping to her feet when you say walk, she ponderously stretches and slowly walks towards the door, though still with an incorrigible smile. As your fur baby gets older, what can you do to ensure the best quality of life possible? How are her nutritional needs changing? What can you do to keep her joints and her mind active?

The first thing to know is that if your dog is starting to slow down, it may not be old age at all - it may be their food. That reality is actually part of my store’s origin story. I wanted a job where I could take my senior dog to work with me, because I felt guilty leaving him alone all day in his old age. So I got a job at a raw pet food company and when I switched my dog to their healthy food, it turned out I had been completely wrong - he hadn’t been old at all. He just was struggling with inflammation and digestive issues. He was six when I considered him a senior dog, and he is 12 now and acts nowhere near as old as he did back then. This truth was why I ended up opening my store - I saw the difference diet had made for my dog and genuinely believe it doubled his life expectancy, and I wanted to share that with others. So my first piece of advice for my customers is to make nutritional changes and feed your dog as healthy a diet as possible to delay old age and stay as spry as RBG. Add in raw - even a little bit every meal - to help improve digestion and give essential digestive enzymes.

My next piece of advice is going to go in all caps, so be prepared: YOU DO NOT NEED TO LOWER PROTEIN INTAKE IN YOUR SENIOR PET!!!! This is a myth, unless you have a specific health diagnosis that indicates doing so. The logic behind this myth is that protein is difficult on the kidneys, but in reality, the quality of the protein is much more important for kidney health than the quantity, along with the amount of moisture and digestive enzymes in the food to help the kidneys function properly. In fact, evidence suggests that reducing protein for your senior dog can lead to a host of health issues because they will begin pulling protein from their own muscles to function. If you would like more information and my sourcing for this (lower protein for seniors is such an entrenched belief I don’t blame you for needing more information) you can email me at desertrawholistic@gmail.com and I would be happy to send you some links.

However, It does make sense to lower the fat content of your dog’s food, because they aren’t burning as much energy and their metabolism is slowing down, so it is a healthy way to reduce calories. If your senior dog is starting to gain weight, a higher protein, lower carb diet is the place to start healthy weight management. In fact, if you cut carbs and slightly cut fat, you may be able to regulate your dog’s weight without cutting the amount you feed them. Only after you have moved to a healthy, high protein diet for a few months and you are still not seeing the weight loss they need for healthy joints would I be ready to advise feeding smaller portions.

Step three is too look at your supplements. Arthritis is, of course, is not something you are ever going to be able to completely avoid, but there is a lot you can do to support the joints and delay discomfort. Again with my Baxter, he started complaining about going up the stairs and showed other signs of pain at about 9 years old. I began supplementing his food with green lipped mussels - one of the most bioavailable sources of glucosamine in the world - and after I went through one bottle, he was back to racing up the stairs with his puppy sister - and those signs of pain did not come back for over a year! This is why I recommend supplementing with green lipped mussels or a good mushroom supplement for joints long before the signs begin. It is important to note that most dry dog foods that tout glucosamine for senior dogs do not include enough to make any sort of difference - it is a marketing strategy. And while there are tons of supplements out there, synthetic glucosamine is not going to be nearly as effective as the natural stuff found in green lipped mussel, because it is getting to your dog in a way that is harder for your dog’s body to synthesize.

As your dog gets along and that isn’t enough alone anymore, locally made Healthy Hemp Pet PCR-Hemp oil will continue to help your dog stay comfortable, as it acts both as pain management and an anti-inflammatory. In addition, a good turmeric supplement, digestive enzymes and a probiotic, especially if you are feeding dry food, an MCT oil, bone broth, and DHA for brain health are all wonderful ways to support your senior dog’s health.

It is sad to watch the aging process happen in seemingly the blink of an eye for our pets. But with the right tools in your toolbox, you can help extend your senior dog’s quality of life for literally years, giving you both more time together.

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