Animals Unfolded

Of all the topics that make a pet guardian's stomach drop, few compare to hearing the word "dementia." It's not hard to understand why. We bring our own history into that conversation — what we've seen online, what a friend went through, what we watched happen to someone we loved. Nearly all of us know someone whose journey with dementia was frightening and disorienting to witness. So when a guardian raises the possibility of cognitive decline in their pet — or a member of the veterinary team does — I do a lot more listening than talking. That fear deserves space before it gets information. Here's a place to start: if your dog or cat is 12, 13, 14 or older, some degree of cognitive change is a reasonable thing to expect. It's often a feature of aging on its own. But just as often, it's tied to an underlying diagnosis — and more specifically, to  unmanaged or under-managed  effects of that diagnosis, like pain or nausea. Addressing those medical pieces ...

I felt him behind me before I heard him — the rumble of an old work truck, slowing down. "Hey there, old timer…" the driver called out, nodding at my charge that day: a 14-year-old Labrador with a fresh cancer diagnosis, osteoarthritis that had been along for the ride for a while now, and a muzzle so gray it looked like he'd stuck his face in a bowl of powdered sugar. I rolled my eyes — privately — then turned and gave a polite nod. Comments like that don't bother me much anymore. I've come to understand they're usually less about the dog and more about the person saying them — a reflexive way to deflect the discomfort of being reminded, out of nowhere, that life is short and bodies fail. I get it. There are bigger things to focus on. Like being safe. I don't see the world as a scary place. If you handle dogs for a living , you accept that it  can  be, under the wrong conditions — and that with training and skill, it's a lot less so. Defensive handlin...

One of the biggest struggles that families face with pets who are aging or are on hospice is an appetite that's unreliable or absent. And it's understandable, given how much of a gauge that behavior is for us. In fact many pet guardians are convinced that their pet is choosing not to eat or eating less because they're dying. And in all my years of supporting people, and in educating them on how the dying process actually unfolds , I can say that they're relieved to learn that is often quite a stretch. Pets don't decide to stop eating. Something is standing in their way—like a symptom, a trigger or a disease process. Or less commonly, their body is moving through the process of actively dying and the body no longer has the need for food. But it's not an active choice.  Appetite does tell us a lot, and while it can be a barometer, it's not something we should ever be using on its own to determine what's going on with a pet. Because quite honestly, it'...

The most important asset that I’ve been able to hone in my practice is that I’m deep in the trenches with providing hands-on care to pets with very special needs. That regular exposure as I tend to pets, no matter if they’re recovering from illness or injury, or senior, geriatric—even moving through their final months or days—it gives me a perspective that’s nuanced, rich and humbling.  Working in the area of animal hospice, I feel like it’s really easy to tell a pet guardian, ‘Oh, use this product’ or ‘ This is why XYZ is going to be beneficial ’. Basically, ‘I’m an authority, and you should do this’. The truth is that there isn’t anything that I recommend or dissuade a pet guardian from doing, a product that I don’t think would be useful in their case because I’m often doing it myself. I’m never too far removed from the caregiving experience of the families I’m connected to. One of the topics that comes up has to do with hygiene care. It’s more important during these life event...

One of the most common topics that comes up with the families I'm connected to these days is cognition—especially dementia—in pets.  It’s no surprise, really, with the focus of my practice being on seniors, geriatrics, hospice and end-of-life care support. With pets living longer and better, yes—more dogs and cats are developing noticeable cognitive changes. There is a lot more available to us in the way of understanding cognition, and how that can and does decline with age and is more palpable in advanced age. We also know how it can be supported medically, non-medically with environmental safety, with enrichment and so much more.  And as with other hot topics, canine and feline cognition can get us a little too far into the weeds which doesn’t serve pets, their families nor their vet teams in a way that makes best sense. In fact, I often observe that the line gets so blurry, that good common sense often goes by the way side and what begins is, well, pardon the expression, a...