October Is Pet Wellness Month and whether you have a senior pet in your family or you’re a sitter who cares for senior pets, having little ways to help them live their best senior years is so important … In this article from our website blog, our Content Manager Danielle shares 7 top tips to help us do just that.
Caring for a senior pet is an important step in every pet owner’s journey, and as our pets grow and change with age, so do their needs. So, this Pet Wellness Month, we wanted to share some of the ways you can help your senior pet stay happy and healthy — and how to help make their twilight years their best yet.
What’s your top tip for making them feel their best and do you have a senior pet story to share?
We’ve looked after some super sweet elderly kitties. One was deaf, one was both blind and deaf. And then there was our friends’ dog who we looked after for many years who also became deaf in her old age and was an absolute sweetheart.
Caring for a senior pet is an important step in every pet owner’s journey, and as our pets grow and change with age, so do their needs. So, we wanted to share some of the ways you can help your senior pet stay happy and healthy — and how to help make their twilight years their best yet.
My oldest rabbit is 11.5 years old which is very elderly. He’s the longest lived of my rabbits so far, so it’s definitely a learning curve! He has a great appetite but also arthritis so he’s content to stay in their ‘home base’ whilst his female companions run around; he just waits for them to return to base for snuggles and snoozes.
They are house rabbits, fortunately, so it’s easy to keep an eye on him (the girls go outside to play every day).
I fostered an elderly cat for a domestic abuse charity (the charity places pets with foster homes whilst supporting the pet’s owners to leave their abusive home. People are often unwilling to leave abusive situations if they cant take their pet(s), knowing the abuser will take it out on them. Anyway…)
I ended up adopting him in March 2020 just after the UK lockdown started, as his owner didnt want him back. He became ill in May and ultimately died in October, so whilst it was incredibly stressful and hard work at times, I still think it was one of the best things I did. It took me months to stop missing him, especially at night, even though I’d only had him for 18 months.
@Ketch thank you so much for volunteering as a foster carer for such an important charity and for giving a helpless pet with no voice and no choice the chance to live his best life, even for a short time, that will be the life he felt and remembered the most.
They make a place in our hearts no matter how long they are in our lives and the sadness and the feeling of loss is profound, they are family.
Many of us who have lost our own pet family members find huge comfort and healing from pet sitting, I know I have so thank you for sharing your fur and feathered family with us.
I am so sorry for your loss … sending healing wishes.
I am just having a sad situation with a cat . The homeowner thinks her elderly cat is very healthy and skipped the yearly annual. I came to house sit 2 weeks ago and had a lovely night with the family. I was here for couple hours and the cat bowl didn’t get touched. I didn’t stay in the house. Arrived next day, HO was changing the food bowl which was still full. So they showed me another kind of food if he gets picky. And they left. That night I tried to bond with the cat and I see labor breathing or I thought so. After a week of having food issues and the cat having as far I can see difficult breathing, called parents and went to the Dr.
The cat has been in a severe heart failure. I was correct about breathing and it was impossible to breath, he was full of water.
So anybody watching elderly babies, there is a lot involved. I spent hours at the vet, than to a specialist then to emergency hospital to be admitted because weekend no Drs around.
HI @Grandma I’m sorry you are having a stressful time with your sit and so sad for the dear cat who I hope is now in the very best of care … For help and advice members can use Veterinary Helpline this is included in the owner membership and sitters have access when on a sit.
It can be very rewarding but also sometimes challenging caring for senior pets, having all of their health & veterinary care information is a must, I hope this was all in the Welcome Guide for you. Thank you for all that you have done for him, I’m sure he knows how much you care and so will his human family.
Take care of yourself and if you need any help and support we are here for you.
Aw @Grandma, so sorry to read of this. Poor old cat, he’s lucky to have your care and attention. (It seems like his owners have been in denial or unobservant.) He’s such a handsome boy too. Is there any news?
I’m planning on leaving full Just In Case instructions for my elderly one when I go away (and will be taking all three for a check-up about a fortnight before I go).
Also all the necessary items original birth certificate, vaccinations and every single paper even H O credit card copy. I have been to every hurdle.
Now I brought cat home and have to see his Dr. Call office to find out booked today.
I have no discharge orders, no dietary orders and since last week seeing only Drs who have free time.
HO and HS cover your basis.
Thanks
Better to subscribe to an online vet help service. The TH helpline is just a vet nurse helpline and I found it to be of little help when I used it recently. They have no email or text message service and despite the fact they told me they would call me back within a few hours, I had to call them back after 24 hours and got some b….hit excuse from them!
For continuity of care, I suggest sitters/homeowners make sure the sitter has the regular vet’s contact details. I would fully expect a sitter to contact my vets (who have 24 hour cover) if there were any issues. [Particularly in the UK, where my pets are considered “exotic” and require a specialist vet.]
Hi @Willexcell I’m sorry you had that experience with the Vet Line could you please DM the details? They are a triage service and not diagnostic which is entirely different of course but the service should be reliable & complete.
If you could provide the date, time, location and sit details.
