New Research on Senior Health

Ann said:
I thought it was good information too, Sharon. We worry so much about gallbladder that we don't think about things like this. I have three who've had kidney infections and we lost Ivy to kidney disease. My vet recommends testing the urine in senior Shelties to check it yearly...not a bad idea!

And what a great idea about the Charley Bears in the water!! I'm going to try that with Flurry who is struggling with bad diarrhea still after 5 days on Metronidazole and not drinking much. We've had to do sub Q fluids twice already. Thanks for the tip!!
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Have you tried slippery elm Ann? I find Metrodiazinole messes with the GI system you can get rebound diarrhea from it. Poor Flurry!
 
Have you ever used one of those pet water fountains, My wife uses one for her cats and swears they drink more water because there is continuous movement. :)
 
Piper's mom said:
Have you tried slippery elm Ann? I find Metrodiazinole messes with the GI system you can get rebound diarrhea from it. Poor Flurry!
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Lisa, she's been on both metronidazole and slippery elm since last Wednesday and at the vet three times, again this morning. We cannot get a handle on this. She's been tested for worms (negative) had bloodwork twice (normal), sub Q fluids, and she's on a special diet for it but it's just not getting better. The vets are baffled and I'm at my wit's end. I feel so bad for her, I'm cleaning her up half a dozen times a day, she's just passing liquid and blood. They think it's a bad case of colitis but I feel like there should be more we could do.
 
Oh Ann what a worry! It does sound like colitis of some sort. I'm really sorry and I hope you are able to get a handle on it soon. Cleaning up after bloody diarrhea is not fun for either of you. Does she feel punk? At some point I'd worry about anemia with the blood loss.
 
Sharon7 said:
Oh Ann what a worry! It does sound like colitis of some sort. I'm really sorry and I hope you are able to get a handle on it soon. Cleaning up after bloody diarrhea is not fun for either of you. Does she feel punk? At some point I'd worry about anemia with the blood loss.
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I agree about the anemia, Sharon. She's had a pretty significant amount of blood loss. I just talked to the vet again this afternoon. I'm going to worm her (and all of them) with Panacur tonight on the vet's instructions, just in case...she said this kind of colitis tracks with whipworms even though her fecal was negative. We agreed if there isn't strong improvment in 24 hours we'll do an abdominal radiograph and more in depth bloodwork. Fortunately, she's had no fever and is acting normally otherwise, so not like a sick dog. Thanks for the input, I appreciate it.
 
Can I just mention about the study, that it is based on SUBMITTED claims and does not assess against known data or research of prevalence, nor do they tell us whether owners of particular breeds are more likely to put in claims or treat a disease for longer. I can't let the statistician in me get away without commenting.

Here's a few examples of what I mean. We don't know the impact of longevity - eg longer lived dogs (usually small breeds) will show more senior related issues. Who submits claims, some breed owners may opt to not treat some age-related illnesses like kidney disease. Is the submission of claims related to the characteristics of owners, where you are more likely to find them, and who gets insurance. And there's no summary of the population or sample.

Because it's a White Paper I think it has a very targeted audience of insurance providers, so the questions we would ask as pet owners are moot. I think there's better sources of info about disease prevalence (British Kennel Club did a good one some years ago for each breed). But it probably helps with insurers for risk profiles of different breeds for premiums - it's not the why but the who they pay out to that matters.
 
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