Specialized Senior & Geriatric Care for Your Pet
As your pet enters his senior years, it’s time to start paying extra attention to his health. Pets age much faster than humans do. They need more frequent checkups to make sure their organs and other body systems are functioning as they should.
Preventive Visits for Senior and Geriatric Animals
In veterinary medicine, a senior pet means:
- Cats between the ages of 7 and 12
- Dogs between 6 and 13, depending on the breed and size
The term geriatric refers to any pet over the age of 12 or 13. At The Vet Gal and Guys, we provide personalized in-home care for your senior and geriatric pets.
We recommend bi-annual exams for all our senior and geriatric patients. Our veterinary team will come to your home and perform everything that’s part of a wellness visit. We’ll also take samples for lab work to check on your pet’s internal organ function.
If we catch organ failure early on, we can provide your senior or geriatric pet with treatment to give them more time to spend earthside with you.
Mobility and joint health checks are another important part of our preventive visits for senior pets. Unlike us, our cats and dogs walk with all 4 limbs. Examining your pet for signs of arthritis and osteoarthritis is key to your senior pet’s preventive care.
Signs Your Pet is Aging
Every pet shows signs of age differently. You might have a seven-year-old lab that moves like a puppy or a 10-year-old cat that climbs her favorite cat tree with ease. We’ll help you keep a close eye on your pet once she’s entering her senior years. But there are key signs of aging you can watch out for, too:
- Level of activity—is your pet slowing down on walks? Do they sleep most of the day, or do they still follow you around the house?
- Changes to drinking, urination, and bowel movements
- Vomiting
- Decreased appetite
- Presence of strange lumps, bumps, masses, or lesions
If you notice any of these in your pet, call or text us to schedule an appointment with our team as soon as possible. With early monitoring and intervention, we can help your senior pet live a longer, healthier, and happier life.