Pet Health | Geriatric Care
Common Medical Conditions in your Senior Pet
At around age seven, your pet is entering his or her senior years and often begins to develop diseases common to humans such as diabetes, heart disease, endocrine disease and cancer. These diseases easily can go undetected because your pet may not show any visible symptoms. Therefore, preventative health care is critical. Routine examinations, blood testing, urine testing, radiographs and electrocardiograph tests can help identify potential health risks before they become evident. Inform your veterinarian of any changes you notice in your pet, including weight loss or gain, appetite, energy, urination, behavior, skin and coat and ability to get up and down. Routine veterinary care will allow your pet to have the best possible quality of life for years to come.
Examination of your senior pet will include:
- Listening to your pet's heart: This will help to find early signs of heart disease such as heart murmurs, abnormal heart beat patterns (arrhythmias), etc. Your pet's lifespan can be increased and his or her quality of life improved if these problems are found early.
- Listening to your pet's lungs: This is done to find signs of infection, tumors, obstructive diseases, etc.
- Checking you pet's teeth and oral cavity: Dental Disease is the number one disease in pets today. It is also one of the most preventable and treatable conditions. Early intervention and regular dental care is vital to good long-term health.
- Evaluating your pet's vision: Many ocular conditions are easily treated if picked up early but are not curable or are more difficult to manage if found late in the disease process.
- Looking into your pet's ears: Ear disease is second to dental disease as the most common ailment that we see at Canyon Pet Hospital. Low-grade allergies, swimming/bathing, food reactions, etc., can all contribute to ear disease. Regular evaluation and early detection can decrease scarring and prevent hearing loss in your pet. Many infections are low-grade or mild and thus are not picked up by owners, making veterinary evaluation is very important.
- Palpating (feeling) your pet's lymph nodes, abdomen and skin: We are looking for any unusual lumps or swellings and evaluating skin colorations, lesions or patterns of hair loss and thinning. These can be early indicators of more systemic problems, especially metabolic disease.
- Palpating joints and muscles We evaluate for swelling of joints, decreasing muscle tone or variations in muscle size between legs. We also are looking for signs of arthritis. Arthritis is best treated if found early. Regular evaluation of pets with arthritis also helps determine the best combination of nutritional, nutriceutical, holistic and pharmaceutical intervention for your pet. Decreasing pain due to chronic arthritis is vital to your pet's quality of life.
Blood Tests
Blood tests give us vital information to help uncover potential medical problems that cannot be found during a physical examination. Some of the things we test for are:
- Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN): BUN is produced by the liver and excreted by the kidneys. Abnormally high levels can indicate kidney disease or dehydration, while low levels can be associated with liver disease.
- Creatinine (CREA): Creatinine is a by-product of muscle metabolism and is excreted by the kidneys. Elevated levels can indicate kidney disease, urinary tract obstruction or dehydration.
- Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT): An enzyme that becomes elevated with liver disease or injury.
- Alkaline Phosphatase (ALKP): An enzyme present in multiple tissues, including liver and bone. Elevated levels indicate liver disease, Cushing's disease or steroid therapy. Cushing's disease is a common disease of the adrenal gland found in middle aged to older dogs. Further blood tests may be necessary if this value is elevated and your dog is showing signs of this disease.
- Blood Glucose (GLU): High levels can indicate diabetes. Low levels can indicate liver disease, infection or certain tumors.
- Total Protein (TP): The level of total protein can detect a variety of conditions, including dehydration and diseases of the liver, kidney or intestine.
- Blood Electrolytes: These values are important in evaluating for various metabolic diseases. It is especially useful for scanning for types of adrenal disease in dogs.
- Amylase/Lipase: Enzymes produced by the pancreas. Elevated blood levels can indicate pancreatic disease. Chronic elevations of these values can also indicate disease more indirectly.
- Cholesterol (CHOL): Elevated levels of cholesterol are seen in a variety of disorders including liver disease, thyroid disease and kidney disease.
- Thyroid (T4): This is a measurement of the level of thyroid hormone circulating in the blood and is helpful in identifying thyroid disease. Thyroid disease is common in pets from young adulthood to old age. It is easy and inexpensive to treat and can significantly decrease your dog's quality of life if untreated.
Complete Blood Count (CBC)
A more complete panel of tests, a CBC provides detailed information on red blood cell count, white blood cell count and platelets. The total white blood cell count and individual cell count can indicate leukemia, stress, inflammation or an inability to fight infection. Low platelet numbers can indicate a bleeding problem. In geriatric pets, a low-grade anemia indicated by a low red blood cell count can be an early indication of a systemic problem your pet may have that cannot be found anywhere else in laboratory work. This is a very useful screening tool.
Additional testing can help gather more pieces of the diagnostic puzzle to identify potential health risks in the early stages when they are more easily treatable.
Urinalysis
Urine contains by-products from many organs, including the kidneys, liver and pancreas. Abnormal levels of these by-products could indicate diabetes, liver disease and kidney disease. Evaluation of urine can also give us information on your pet's ability to concentrate urine, look for signs of early or low-grade infection and the development of crystals/stones and blood in the urine. It is very useful to use this in conjunction routine blood testing.
Radiology
Radiographs (x-rays) of your pet's chest are a good screening method for the evaluation of heart disease. We also look for indications of chronic respiratory disease such as a collapsing trachea or chronic bronchitis. X-rays can also find primary lung masses or the early spread of disease to the lungs from elsewhere in the body. Again, finding problems early is vital to being able to intervene in a way that will benefit your pet's quality of life.
Electrocardiogram
This is also known as an EKG or ECG. It is an evaluation of the electrical impulses given off by your pet's heart. EKG's allow us to look for heart chamber enlargement, arrhythmias and are a more thorough evaluation of your pet's heart than just a physical exam and radiographs. This is often the only way to evaluate your pet for life threatening arrhythmias.