Senior Wellness Clinics

Here at The Harrogate Vet, we are passionate about caring for your pets through every stage of their life. Just like us, as our pets age, they are more likely to develop conditions which require medical care. We believe that early detection is the key to managing these conditions and ensuring your pet can live life to the fullest, whatever their age! To help detect these conditions early, we have launched our Senior Wellness Clinics.

The aim of these clinics is to screen your pet for common conditions affecting older cats and dogs. We also assess their body condition, diet, exercise routine and home environment, all with the aim of creating a holistic care plan for your pet.

As pets age, it is normal to see some changes to their behaviour, but some of these changes can indicate an underlying problem. Signs to look out for in your senior pet include:

• Increased thirst or urination
• Stiffness when first getting up
• Slowing down on walks, or less interest in going out for walks
• Being less interactive or not wanting to be groomed
• Reluctance to jump (e.g. on furniture or into the car) or use the stairs
• Licking at their legs
• Poorer coat quality
• Sleeping more
• Weight loss or changes in appetite (increased or decreased)

What is included in our Senior Wellness Clinics?

Prior to your appointment you will be asked to complete questionnaire about your pet, and you will also be asked to collect a urine sample.

The initial appointment will last around 45 minutes and will be with one of our Registered Veterinary Nurses. It will include:

• Full clinical exam and dental check
• Blood Pressure Measurement
• Urine sample testing
• Blood testing
• Body condition scoring and diet analysis
• Exercise assessment

The results of these tests will be collated and assessed by a Veterinary Surgeon who will call you to discuss the findings and any recommendations for management, treatment or lifestyle changes.

A follow up appointment will be made with a Registered Veterinary Nurse to design a holistic care plan for your pet with an aim to ensure your pet remains happy, healthy and comfortable for as long as possible!

Senior Wellness Clinics are aimed at dogs over 7 years and cats over 8 years old.

What conditions are we concerned about?

The blood sample taken during our Senior Wellness Clinic can detect early signs of a number of diseases such as chronic kidney disease (CKD), hyperthyroidism, diabetes and other endocrine diseases.

These blood tests allow us to detect these conditions before your pet is displaying any clinical signs.

For example, clinical signs of Chronic Kidney Disease are often not seen in our patients until they have already lost up to two thirds of their kidney function, whereas our tests can detect this as early as 25% loss¹. Urine tests and blood pressure measurements will also help to build a picture around these blood test results of your pet’s general health.

Mobility can often decline as our pets age; with 80% of dogs over the age of eight², and 90% of cats over the age of twelve suffering from osteoarthritis³. This is a painful condition and can reduce your pet’s quality of life, so we want to help manage this disease in any way we can. For overweight pets, losing just 6% of their bodyweight can improve mobility by the same amount as starting anti-inflammatory medication⁴. Pain from arthritis should not just be ‘a part of getting old’.

Our nurses are fantastic at looking at your pet as a whole; looking at their diet, exercise and home environment. Medication, if required, only makes up a piece of this puzzle, and so these clinics will enable our nurses to come up with a tailored plan to help with all aspects of your pet’s care and lifestyle.

For more information or to talk to one of our nurses, please contact us on 01423 637333.

References

1. Hall JA, Yerramilli M, Obare E, Yerramilli M, Jewell DE. Comparison of serum concentrations of symmetric dimethylarginine and creatinine as kidney function biomarkers in cats with chronic kidney disease. J Vet Intern Med. 2014;28(6):1676–1683.
2. Management, C. A., 2024. Arthritis – The Basics. [Online]
   Available at: https://caninearthritis.co.uk/what-is-arthritis/arthritis-the-basics/
   [Accessed March 2024].
3. Hardie EM, Roe SC, Martin FR. Radiographic evidence of degenerative joint disease in geriatric cats: 100 cases (1994–1997). J Am Vet Med Assoc 2002; 220:628–32.
4. Verma, R., Turkar, S & Sethi, A.P.S., 2021. Impact of weight loss on lameness associated with hip osteoarthritis in obese dogs. Explor Anim Med res, 11 (2), pp.229-236