Yes. That would be a great idea if your pet needed that, and the softer the food, the better. Of course, we would want to address the dental disease directly. And also, there are senior diets that are marketed to be a little lower calorie. Some have more of the antioxidants and nutrients that our older pets would need, which is why we often recommend transitioning to senior dog food as your dog gets older.

For our senior dogs, a lot of it goes back to their lifestyle. Think of it like people—if we're a little bit more sedentary, if we're watching movies a little more or sitting around the house a little more, our dog is also likely inside more than outside and not getting quite as much exercise. In this case, the dog will need fewer treats and fewer calories to take in, so we need to be aware of that. We can spoil them a little bit too much with treats. But if they are an active senior pet, then they still might need the appropriate calories. What you want to make sure in general is that they don't gain too much weight. And then we think about our giant or large breed dogs needing joint supplements, that's something nutritionally we can add in, and we often do recommend adding that into the diet along with, perhaps, an omega-3 or fish oil supplement.

Yes. It is good to continue exercising regularly with your dog. Hopefully, your dog would have been conditioned to do that all alone. So that would be good to continue with a normal range of motion, low impact exercises like walking or swimming. We don't want to do a lot of high-impact jumping, twisting, or turning, because that can be a little harder on the joints. So you want to be a bit careful with that. Let them be the judge of that. You don't want to push them beyond their limits, but encouraging your dog to exercise is very good for them.

Great question. So the general definition is where the dog is in their life. Our mature dog is no longer a spring chicken, but they are mature, so, for example, a small breed dog may be between the ages of five to seven. A senior dog for a smaller breed (because they tend to live a little longer) would be about 10 to 13. And then our geriatric would be more like 15 to 18. So I know I didn't align those up precisely, but that’s the basic timeline.

Our mature, large or giant breed dogs would be more like three to five years old. And so you think about a three-year-old being young, but in a giant breed dog, that lifespan might be 9 to 10 years, so that would be mature. The senior would be more like the six to eight years old, and then the geriatric is 9 to 10 or 11.

So the veterinary answer is that you should brush your cat’s teeth every day. The human response is we would love it if you would try to brush your cat's teeth. I think I’ve had two cats, maybe three in here whose owners honestly brushed their cats’ teeth. It's pretty rare, and it’s a pretty rare cat who will allow that. Cats tend to be a little persnickety and harder to deal with, but they make seafood flavor toothpaste. So if you're interested, we can work with you on that.

If it goes well for basic cleaning, polishing, and fluoride treatment, it may be as little as 30 to 45 minutes. We've had procedures go three hours in cats as well, depending on what we’re dealing with here, so it’s hard to give a cut and dry answer. It varies dramatically.

If there are severe odors, such as in stomatitis complex cats, there's infection. And we want to try to get the infection under control before the dental. We continue antibiotics after the dental to get the infection out of the bone. If we're doing extractions or any type of underneath-the-gum work, your pet needs pain medication. If anybody's ever had gum disease and gum treatment at your dentist, it hurts. So we're going to treat your cat with pain management to make sure that they’re not in discomfort.

Extractions occur if a tooth is unhealthy. There is not much worse than having to extract a cat's tooth. It's one of my least favorite things to do. The teeth are so tiny, so it's complicated. It's not fun for the cat or the owner. But if we're going to get this cat's mouth healthy, it has to be done in many cases. So if we have these resorptive tooth lesions, you get this diseased and painful tooth out of the way for this cat. If we have periodontal disease, it's causing some root exposure. This tooth is only going to be a continual problem and source of pain for this cat. And honestly, it's going to lead to infection that spreads throughout the rest of the body. So, if a tooth is diseased beyond us being able to save it, it's better to extract this tooth and give the cat a healthy mouth again.

There’s also a syndrome called stomatitis complex in kitties. And it is a strange immune-mediated response to minor tartar and calculus buildup on the crown of the tooth. Because of severe inflammation and severe pain, we’ll see these cats drooling. We’ll smell a powerful odor from the mouth. And these cats many times come in having lost weight. The only actual treatment is extraction of those teeth. And everybody says, "Oh my gosh, I can't do that to this cat. How are they going to eat?" Well, they eat better, is what they do. After getting the pain and inflammation out, these cats feel great. I know of two cats in this clinic who have no teeth. We've extracted all the teeth because of this syndrome. But these two cats will not even eat canned food. They only eat dry food. They'll starve themselves as opposed to eating the canned food. Cats deal with it fabulously and feel so much better.