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Home > Articles > Role of the Veterinarian and the Aging Pet
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Regular checkups of your pet during their senior years help Veterinarians determine the direction of their health and can help you to better understand what is to come.
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Watching your pet age is difficult and poses many questions for the family. Maybe your faithful companion is having trouble getting around due to arthritic conditions, maybe their sight is failing, or perhaps they are living with kidney failure.
You may ask yourself if your pet is suffering or if your pet has the quality of a full life. Veterinarians are licensed and caring professionals that can help you with your questions. However, it is important to know that they can not make an euthanasia decision for you. They can be there to give you powerful information to guide you in understanding aging issues.
Does your pet seem to sleep more and more each passing year? This is very common in the older pet and by no means an indication your pet is suffering in any way. They are just slowing down.
Changes in eyesight can vary quite a bit. Is your pet bumping into walls? Are their corneas starting to get clouded over? A veterinarian can use a special light and look into your pet's eyes and diagnose if there is something serious going on internally or externally with the eye.
Is your pet stiff in the joints especially after waking? This could be a sign of arthritis and there are many treatments the veterinarian can offer for joint pain. Ranges of treatments include medications, water therapy, or working with a physical therapist.
Aging pets also suffer from a lot of skin bumps, lumps, and lesions. These symptoms could be very benign or could be very serious. A veterinarian will do tests on the area that will diagnose the problem.
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