Yes. Well, maybe. We will be talking about senior dogs today, and it's really important that you feed your dog a good diet. A good diet is what's called premium pet food. We recommend two different brands, Hills and Royal Canin, but there are many out there, and they're usually a little more expensive than the grocery store diets, but it needs to be made for senior dogs. It's really important to feed your dog of seven years of age or older a senior diet. It'll help maintain his body weight and muscle mass and help keep him a little bit more active. When we see senior pets in our practice, we usually do senior profiles. All this stuff in here is laboratory equipment, and we have x-rays, and in the back is dentistry and surgery. We can take care of anything your senior pet needs, but blood and urine tests yearly are really important. That way, we can use diets and supplements to increase their longevity because increasing your dog's longevity is our mission.

I will say this is the biggest hot-button issue question we get at some point from every owner. Should I feed my pet a grain-free diet? Nine times out of 10, the answer is no, you shouldn't. Most pets we find are not allergic specifically to grain. What we're most looking for is ensuring their diet is balanced and nutritionally sound. I have very few pets that are indeed showing signs of an adverse reaction to grains, and those have been monitored by a veterinarian, and then the appropriate grain-free or restricted diet of some sort is added on. There are some cases, but not as many as we want to think that that's the easy fix to solving your pet's problems. This question has many avenues to go down and is tailored to every pet's needs. So please bring it up on your next visit. We can talk about options and if that is the right choice for your pet without going into a tangent but also bringing it up. You might have seen in the news that there have been cases of cardiomyopathy in dogs fed primarily grain-free and legume-rich diets for a long period of time. This is a heart condition that they've noticed specifically with these dogs, and that, in particular, is alarming and something we want to watch out for. So that is why we push, and we just keep trying to ram it home. Ensuring you find an AAFCO-approved diet that is nutritionally sound and balanced and has all of the nutrients your pet needs is very important.

It can, and that too falls in the line of if your dog will just eat until the bowl's empty and you're keeping that bowl full all of the time. In that case, it will contribute to a higher calorie intake. Whereas if you're feeding set meals with a measured amount, then you know for a fact they're getting their daily requirement of calories, and they're not exceeding an excessive amount. Also, going back to the previous one, if everybody in your family is contributing, if you have little kids or some of us big kids in the house, I'm sure you have some of those that are giving food to your pet, keep that in mind when feeding them as well. If they are getting a copious amount of calories, something has to give. So make sure that there's a rule in the house that you're only giving a dedicated treat and nothing else to help control how much your pet is eating so you don't see their waistline expanding.

They can. If you are feeding your dog your scraps after every meal of what you have to eat, and giving them some too, if everybody in your family, you might not realize, is also doing the same thing, those calories add up fast. We can show you comparisons, especially on your dog's breed and size, and the equivalent of what you're feeding them would be in our terms. You'd be surprised by the equivalent of how many double cheeseburgers they are eating in comparison to what they should be for their size. So be mindful of that. They don't need as much food as you think they do or as they would like you to think that they do.

This one's a little tricky because, let's face it, sometimes dogs are dogs, and they like chewing on things like your shoes, sticks, rocks, and grass. For most dogs, if you see them eat grass, then that's just them being a dog eating grass. However, if you see it excessively and they are starting to eat copious amounts of grass followed by throwing up, it could be a sign that they are lacking fiber content or some sort of bulking agent in their food. So let us know, and we can do other tests to make sure everything else is running well in your dog's diet or your dog's health. Then we can assess doing a diet change as needed. Again, this is a rough one to answer. We need to know a little bit more about your pet, but if you're just seeing it occasionally, it's usually safe to say that your pet will be fine, but keep an eye on it and check out for the frequency.

Not necessarily. I have plenty of dogs that need to be on a balanced over-the-counter diet. On the other hand, if your dog's a candidate that one of our prescription diets would help make it have a happier and better life, then prescription diets are another great choice. Neither one is better than the other. It's more just based on the individual dog and their dietary needs. If you have any questions on over-the-counter diets versus prescription diets and/or what recommendations we might have, give us a call. We'd always like to help answer those because we know your pet through exams, and by answering your questions, we can better fine-tune your nutrition recommendations.

Not necessarily. If you are choosing a food that is AAFCO certified and assured as a balanced diet, it doesn't matter if you feed wet or dry food. They're going to have the same nutritional value. The difference lies in preference and/or medical conditions that might contribute to choosing one or the other.

The obvious symptoms you'll look for are drooling, foaming, stumbling, lethargy, usually hanging their head down low, tucked tail, vomiting, and diarrhea. These are all signs that something good is not happening, so if you suspect in the slightest that your dog might have gotten into something poisonous, whether it be food, a chemical, or a substance, call your local emergency clinic, the poison helpline, or any of these options right away. It's important to seek medical treatment sooner rather than later to make sure we get your pet back on track to a healthy state.

An elimination diet is generally a prescription diet that is a strict diet focused on taking out all of the high allergic triggers. These diets need to be followed to the T of veterinarian recommendations, making sure they're not getting any other outside food sources into their system. This will allow us to monitor to see if any of the previously ill symptoms we were looking to get rid of start going away once they are on the elimination diet. From there, your veterinarian may decide to gradually introduce other foods to see which triggers those allergic responses again so we can take that out of the equation, or we have some pets that just right off the bat do so well that they stay on that allergenic specific diet.