Aging to fast... need advise

Oh, and I for got to mention, the doc said that he doesn't have cataracts. His eyes are just showing his age and becoming cloudy, but it doesn't affect his vision. But he does think F-kap has some hearing loss, and that could get worse as time goes on. I can't stop it or slow it down, so I'm going to teach him basic obedience using hand signals just in case later in life he has little to no hearing.
 
Tabitha said:
Oh, and I for got to mention, the doc said that he doesn't have cataracts. His eyes are just showing his age and becoming cloudy, but it doesn't affect his vision. But he does think F-kap has some hearing loss, and that could get worse as time goes on. I can't stop it or slow it down, so I'm going to teach him basic obedience using hand signals just in case later in life he has little to no hearing.
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We lucked out and included hand signals when we trained my parents' border collie as a puppy. She started going deaf when she was about 5, and now at 10 she is completely deaf. She has no problem understanding what we want her to do. If she's out in the yard with her back turned to us and we want her to come inside, and can't get her attention, we've trained the other dog to go get her. Basically the other dog just runs out and makes a circle around her to get her attention and we can wave her in from there.
 
Last month I switched F-kap to Cosiquine Advanced Strength. He'd been doing grate on it (almost like a new dog!) but lately he hasn't had much energy. He's also been limping little, I know it's worse that he's letting on, he tries very hard to hide it. He doesn't want to jump on or off my bed anymore (he fell off last time he tried to jump on), and he's been chewing on his hips and paws again. All these are signs that he's in pain. I'm getting close to the bottom of the bottle of Cosiquine, and when it's gone I'm switching him to the Maximum Strength formula. I said in another thread or earlier in this one (can't remember) that I have to switch his joint pills up regularly. I have no clue why, they just stop working for him. If the Max dosn't work, I'll probably try one of the Vibrant Pets formulas. Has anyone else's dog gone through this, were none of the joint pills will work for them for more than just a few months (sometimes less)? What did you do to help him/her? I know winters coming, so that will have a lot to do with it, but this has happened in the summer time too.:(
 
My Murphy dog was completely deaf for the last years of his life. I didn't realize it for a long time as he followed my other dog's lead. AND the other dog would go wake Murphy up when I called them to go out for a walk ! Once I found out that Murphy was deaf, I realized that many of the behavior changes I had been seeing were becasue of the deafness.

Anyway, believe it or no the biggest 'advantage' when Murph went deaf - he was no longer afraid of thunderstorms !

Another thought, I've had luck with feeding my creaky dog fish oil capsules in his food. Start of slowly with them so they do not cause tummy upset. I've heard that flaxseed capsules work well too.
 
I've been supplementing Cosequin with coconut oil and Fasb is doing well. He wasn't too crazy about the fish oil (he doesn't like medicine with/in his food), so I feed him a spoonful of coconut oil in the evenings. He probably thinks it's a treat. At 76 degrees (f) or below, coconut oil partially solidifies, so it has the consistency of ice cream. We actually tell him it is ice cream.

Only issue is that last week he stopped wanting to eat it off a spoon. He's making me scoop in out and feed him from my hand. :biggrin2:

My vet suggested one tablespoon per 30 lbs of body weight. Start with a small amount and build up over the course of a few weeks.
 
Fasb's Owner said:
I've been supplementing Cosequin with coconut oil and Fasb is doing well. He wasn't too crazy about the fish oil (he doesn't like medicine with/in his food), so I feed him a spoonful of coconut oil in the evenings. He probably thinks it's a treat. At 76 degrees (f) or below, coconut oil partially solidifies, so it has the consistency of ice cream. We actually tell him it is ice cream.

Only issue is that last week he stopped wanting to eat it off a spoon. He's making me scoop in out and feed him from my hand. :biggrin2:

My vet suggested one tablespoon per 30 lbs of body weight. Start with a small amount and build up over the course of a few weeks.
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Yes, I know about the coconut oil. I was actually one of the ones that told you about it.:wink2:
 
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That's great news. I'm happy for you that it is seems simply to just winding down......and manageable. Hugs!
 
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