Senility - Any Natural Things That Can Help?

[Trisven13]

We think Grandma our old kelpie is developing a few senility issues. They are very very mild at this point, nowhere near sufficient to look at euthanasia, and she is otherwise quite healthy - in fact she has gained 2kg over Winter - whoops! We don't know her age or her history (have only had her since February) but guess her to be somewhere between 14 & 17 years. She is quite stiff with arthritis but still mobile, she is deaf as a post and has both mammary & perenial tumous, and a heart murmer. We expect that one of the last 3 will eventually require her to be pts and before the senility becomes a major issue.

Is there anything we can do to help her out before then? We feed a raw diet and Grandma eats chicken frames predominantly with a twice weekly BARF meal. My vet recommended Hills Science Diet Brain Diet which she said some clients had had great success with - she said that when it first came out she thought it was a crock but has had very good results so she is recommending it. It seems to me to just have more Omegas than other foods.

[Golden Rules]

I will be interested to hear people's responses. Such a good question for anyone with an old dog.

I would think a few fish oil capsules daily might be good for arthritis etc.

[Dogsfevr]

we have an old girl with bad senility we did have her on meds & they help but it gets to a point where it no longer gives them that help.Our girl is 15 & in la la land

[RuralPug]

Most of the supplements for senility seem to be touted only by their inventors/manufacturers, so I would be quite wary. Of those that do list ingredients, there don't seem to be any that share ingredients!!!!

Looking at the ingredients in that Hills b/d diet, it uses a lot of plant phytates and then has to add the minerals back in DOH!

I would think your girl is better on what you are feeding, but maybe increase the lean red meat content to increase zinc intake plus at least one feed of fish per week? Chuck a few egg yolks in as well. If she is not on arthritis meds or Joint Guard or similar you might want to think about those also.

The bottom line is you should juggle your meat types (red/white/fish) a bit until you find the proportions that suit her best. JMO. You might find that others in your yard do better on slightly different proportions. My seniors (small breed) do best when their meat is roughly 1/3 each type.

Bearing in mind that your old girl has possibly only been on a decent diet since February, you might want to consider giving her a mineral supplement for 3-6 weeks or an immune system booster as a kick start whilst you are juggling the diet.

That's my two cents, you'll probably get lots of suggestions, we won't all be right so have fun choosing!

[Alibi]

Vivitonin is on prescription at your vet, this is something used for senility in dogs (if you google it you should get a bit of info). Hills B/D is supose to be good for brain ageing as well.