Care for Senior Dogs

I specialize in grooming older dogs and cats. I'm a mobile groomer in Tampa area. Mobile groomers go to your house, making it less stressful on the pet. I pull a trailer with a 6' tub and an extra large hydraulic lift table - perfect for big, old dogs! See my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Sharonsgrooming/

General Care for your Senior Dog

Shared with permission from https://pawfriction.com/

It is a fact of life, all of us are getting older and that includes our pets. We all want our four-legged family members to live long and health lives so this blog will discuss a few general things that you can do to help your dog be healthy and happy for as long as possible.

1. Diet: We have a lot of people ask us if you should switch to a senior diet. Senior pet foods typically have a bit more protein to keep muscle healthy and tend to have more fiber to keep your dog regular. Should you switch? Possibly, but the ultimate diet should be the one that keeps your dog happy and active.

2. Weight Management: This goes without saying but a thinner dog is a healthier dog. Keeping your dog in good weight is paramount for health and combating some of the common older dog issues like arthritis.

3. Mobility: Keep your dog mobile; even a little bit of exercise a day can help with weight management, emotional health, and keeping muscle mass intact.

4. Veterinary Visits: Just like us, as a dog ages, your veterinary visits should become a lot more frequent. We recommend at least twice a year visits and blood work at least one a year. As veterinarians, we are getting better at recognizing diseases and treating them but early detection is the key.

5. Vigilance: No one knows your dog better than you do. We can tell when our pets are a little off. Don’t ignore your intuition. If you think your senior dog is having an issue or a problem, I strongly encourage you to have your pet looked at by a professional veterinarian.

6. Support: With aging comes a myriad of normal problems: mobility issues, vision issues, hearing issues, cognitive issues, etc. Many of these conditions can be helped with simple, over-the counter products and supplements including PawFriction. I recommend that you speak with your vet if you have any of these issues and they can point you in the direction with products that should be able to help.

So, that is a brief overview of things that you can do to help you senior pet live a better life. Unfortunately, one thing none of us can change is genetics, and that plays a big role in the health of our senior pets. Fortunately, medicine and diets are improving all the time and we hope that the years ahead will create many new therapies that improve our ability to fight the problems of aging.  

Keeping Pets out of Your Garden!

At our RV Park, like many others, we have several feral cats. I'm an animal lover but HATE that they use the sand under my RV as their personal litter box!

So I researched ideas!

From https://www.gardenguides.com/112108-home-remedies-keeping-pets-out-gardens.html

Home Remedies for Keeping Pets Out of Gardens

By Cindy Hill; Updated September 21, 2017 

People love their pets, but our furry friends can be devastating to a vegetable or flower garden. Dogs love to dig and barrel through garden plots, oblivious to the plants they are bowling over. Cats like to use the nice light fluffy soil of a freshly dug garden as a litter box. Commercial animal repellents may be harmful to pets' health, so use safe homemade remedies to keep pets out of your garden.

Cayenne Mix and Tea

The North Dakota State University Extension Service advises that a mixture of two parts cayenne pepper, three parts powdered mustard and five parts flour, sprinkled copiously around garden areas, will keep away nearly every four-footed creature. Store the mixture in a large jug with a lid. Use gloves when applying it, and avoid applying it on a windy day so as not to inhale the mixture or get it on your skin. The North Dakota Extension also suggests that keeping your used tea bags, then tearing them open and sprinkling the tea leaves around your garden plants, will deter cats from using the area as a little box because they do not like the scent of tea.

Rocks and Diversions

One way to discourage cats from inhabiting your garden beds is to plant them a bed of their own. The North Dakota Extension suggests planting an area of catnip to divert cats away from your garden. Wheatgrass is also attractive to cats and will distract them from your flowers and vegetables. Laying large, flat river stones between vegetable garden rows or around your perennials can also deter cats, since they are seeking out a large area of soft accessible dirt for a litter box. Strong scented culinary herbs like lavender and rue may also deter cats from your garden beds.

Fencing and Wire

The University of Vermont Extension advises that fencing is nearly the only sure way to prevent dogs from running through your gardens. They suggest trying invisible fencing for your own dogs and having a serious talk with neighbors if unleashed pets from other households are damaging your gardens. Chicken wire laid flat on the ground and staked down over new plantings will prevent dogs from digging in them. The North Dakota Extension suggests laying concrete reinforcing wire down flat around your garden area because cats don't like stepping through the wires. Spraying the wire with eucalyptus oil acts as an added deterrent.




Here's an article with great ideas from HGTV. I'll keep you posted on what worked for me :)

How to Pet-Proof Your Garden

Learn how to keep the peace between your garden and pets with these 9 simple tips.

Master gardener Marianne Binetti shares ideas for keeping your pets from becoming pests in the garden.

• To keep dogs from lying down in flower beds, simply drive some short stakes into the ground throughout the bed.
• Keep pets out of freshly mulched or seeded beds, or soft soil, by setting some thorny branches in the ground at regular intervals.
• Make a chicken-wire fence to protect entire beds. To keep it from being an eyesore, drive several tall stakes in the ground around the bed's perimeter. Slip a roll of chicken wire over an end stake. Unroll the wire and prop it up against the rest of the stakes when in use, and roll it up to when you don't want it visible.
• Plant pungent herbs such as rosemary and sage to keep cats out of a garden bed.
• An annual plant named Coleus canina was developed with a very pungent smell that drives away cats. Plant it under birdfeeders or wherever you want to discourage your cat from going.
• Spread a layer of coffee grounds in beds to keep out the cats.
• To keep cats from digging in bare soil spots (edges to narrow to plant seeds, for example) plant a brick in the soil. When they run into it, they will look for a different place to dig.
• To keep dogs from digging in the garden, create their own play area in a bare spot of soil. Dig a large shallow hole and fill it with sand. Add some toys and your dog has his own sandbox.
• And here's a gardening tip to help your pets: use cedar chips for pathways and in beds to help protect your pets from fleas.