Feb. 25, 2025
Keeping Active Dogs Healthy: Exercise & Injury Prevention
đž Is Your Dog Getting the Right Amount of Exercise? Or Are They at Risk for Injury? đŚ´
Whether your dog is a non-stop zoomer, a weekend warrior, or a laid-back couch cuddler, keeping them fit, active, and injury-free is key to their long-term health. But how do you know when to push themâand when to let them rest? đ¤
In this episode of Muddy Paws and Hairballs, Dr. Kelly Fishman, a veterinary sports medicine expert, shares her best advice on customizing exercise for your dogâs age, breed, and activity levelâplus key injury prevention strategies every pet parent should know!
𦴠In This Episode:
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How much exercise does your dog really need? (And when to push or slow down)
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Signs your dog is overdoing itâwhat pet parents often miss
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Breed-specific considerations for keeping dogs fit and injury-free
â
The role of joint health supplements and proper nutrition in mobility
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Warm-ups & cool-downs: Why they matter for active dogs
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Fun, safe activities for senior dogs to keep them engaged
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Why regular vet checkups are key for long-term dog health
đ Dr. Fishmanâs expert tips will help you keep your dog active, pain-free, and happy for years to come! đž Â Listen now!
#ActiveDogs #DogHealth #SeniorDogs #DogExercise #PreventInjuries #HealthyPets #MuddyPawsPodcast
Connect with Us
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Subscribe to Muddy Paws and Hairballs for more practical advice for real pet parents.
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Share this episode with other pet parents to help them live their very best lives with their pets!
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CONTACT: Amy@StarlightPetTalk.com
Thanks for listening to Muddy Paws and Hairballs, your go-to resource for all things pet care. From dog training, behavior, and socialization to cat enrichment, pet adoption, and tackling behavior problems, we provide expert advice and real talk to help you create a happy, healthy life with your pets. Whether you're dealing with dog anxiety, looking for puppy training tips, or exploring enrichment ideas for your cat, we've got you covered. Be sure to check out all our episodes!
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction to Dog Health and Activity
01:48 - The Energetic Zoomer vs. The Couch Potato
24:31 - Tailoring Activity Based on Age and Breed
33:49 - Signs of Overexertion in Dogs
42:39 - Preventing Injuries for a Lifetime of Adventures
56:52 - Introducing Dr. Kelly Fishman and Her Expertise
01:40:19 - Understanding the Importance of Regular Vet Check
02:06:00 - Nutrition and Supplements for Active Dogs
02:30:16 - Keeping Senior Dogs Engaged and Moving
Transcript
WEBVTT
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Is your dog?
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That dog, you know, the one who thinks walk means drag the human at full speed and turns every squirrel sighting into a high-stakes chase, and who believes the living room rug is the perfect place to practice their zoomy takeoffs.
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Or maybe your dog's your running buddy, the one who never turns down a jog but ends up limping and giving you the side eye, like I told you, that was a bad idea.
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In this episode, we're talking about all dogs, whether your dog's more of a couch potato or an active dog who loves neighborhood jogs, backyard sprints or intense adventure hikes.
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How can we keep our pups healthy and injury-free?
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What are the signs that they've overdone it and how do we make sure they keep living their best zoomy lives for years to come?
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Let's find out together.
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Stay tuned.
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Hey there everybody.
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I'm Amy Castro, and welcome to Muddy Paws and Hairballs, where we dig into the messy, hilarious and realistic life with pets.
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Today we're talking about keeping dogs active and preventing injuries for all dogs, from the casual strollers to the full-throttle zoomers and everybody in between, and we want to keep them healthy, strong and injury-free for a lifetime of adventures and to help us figure out how to help our high-energy dogs, especially move without wrecking their joints.
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We've got Dr Kelly Fishman joining us today.
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Dr Kelly is the founder of Strut Animal Mobility Specialist and she's a veterinary sports medicine expert who helps dogs and cats stay mobile, recover from injuries and thrive at every stage of their lives.
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She's a certified veterinary acupuncturist and canine rehabilitation therapist and she is passionate about giving pet parents practical tools, which we love around here, to help their animals live longer, healthier and more active lives.
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So welcome to the show, dr Kelly.
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We are so excited to have you here.
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Thank you, I'm happy to be here, amy.
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Let's go ahead and start with some of the basics.
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So how do we know, you know, based on who our dog is, what is the appropriate level of activity?
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Yeah, so it definitely is kind of the two things I'd think about.
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One it would be age.
00:02:08.745 --> 00:02:40.441
So, first of all, we all would know that a puppy needs different activity restrictions than an adult dog, than a senior, and what that means is, if I have a lab and it's four months old, I want to be really conscious of those growing bones and those fragile joints, that I don't do things that, like you know, jumps that are too high for my animal, or lots of activities like running really hard on concrete, which are really, you know, hard on young growing bones.
00:02:40.441 --> 00:03:14.042
So you know, if I have a younger dog, you know there's certain guidelines that us rehab vets are taught about what are safe activities for puppies and then usually adult dogs if they don't have any underlying medical issue, and sometimes those medical issues that I think of because I'm a veterinarian that's dealing with the body I don't really think of, like a kidney disease, right, I think of a Frenchie that is really predisposed to getting a disc herniation, and that's the stuff that I worry about.
00:03:14.042 --> 00:03:18.311
You know, how can I prevent a disc herniation and a French bulldog?
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So things that I would tell someone who had a dog like that would be like you know, again, just like we don't want our puppies jumping, we probably don't want those dogs jumping also.
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You know.
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So that's something that's, you know, a bit obvious there.
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So but if you, you know, if you keep aside just the breed and the age, then we go into our seniors and our senior dogs are more likely to have arthritis, neurologic conditions that are causing them to slow down and be a bit more fragile.
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And so those dogs you also want to be a little bit conscious of and not overwork them in ways that kind of flare those issues up.
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So, thinking about the breed of your dog, thinking about their age and then thinking about what you can do to just prevent injury and then also to do safe and fun activities as well.
00:04:04.586 --> 00:04:14.573
Right, I'm glad you mentioned the puppy thing because although you know, as somebody that does rescue and has puppies come through our program and have raised puppies, I'm aware of that.
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But I think I'm often surprised that there is a certain mindset, or maybe a lack of knowledge or information that says, oh, they're young, they can do whatever because they're young and, you know, not necessarily thinking about growth plates, things like that.
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That is really important.
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We were even seeing that right now my daughter's got a little terrier mix and when she overdoes it you can tell it's like a hint of a limp, but it's because she's still young.
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So you do need to keep an eye on that.
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When it comes to the breeds, we don't do a lot of DNA testing but I had mentioned to you before we started recording that my dog is two-thirds English Bulldog, one-third American Bulldog and so you know she has a lot of those, especially the English Bulldog characteristics and she's already had an ACL reconstruction and I'm constantly telling her stop running because I don't want that knee and she's got loose hips and things like that.
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That sort of come with the breed but I think, also poor breeding, because she was intentionally bred to be what she is.
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It wasn't like an oopsie thing.
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Unfortunately, so is DNA testing.
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Like if somebody has a dog and they don't know what it is, does it matter the breed Like should they find out, because then they can watch out for certain potential sources of injury.
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Yeah, I mean I suggest that, and part of it is we know, we are now learning that some of those common orthopedic conditions are genetic.
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So, thinking about our French Bulldogs, we know that those compressed discs, that interverticular disease or IVDD that they suffer from, that dash hounds suffer from, that pugs have, that sometimes bulldogs have as well.
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Send it off to some of these DNA testing systems and not only finding so much what breeder dog is, but what kind of conditions they are genetically predisposed to.
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And another interesting thing that just came to light in the veterinary area that most vets and maybe most people don't know are that those ACL tears or that cruciate ligament tear, that's actually genetic.
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So Labradors for example, are genetically predisposed to get those cranial cruciate or ACL or CCL tears that we all dread, and your dog has.
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It's a very expensive process to fix it too.
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Oh gosh, it's so expensive.
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And it's not even that it's so expensive just to have the surgery.
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But if your dog was a person, they'd be going to rehabilitation for months after to strengthen right away.
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And then you know, I'm a rehab vet and I sometimes tell people I said you know the surgery is expensive but rehab is going to be twice as much and not everybody has access to rehab.
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And that's something that you know.
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Why I'm here to talk to people?
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Because I want pet parents to know that even if you're, you know, unable to pursue formal rehab programs for injuries, there is stuff you could do.
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But sorry, a tangent there.
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But yes, of course, our genetic things that these breeds have and and right now we don't really have a test for, you know, a cruciate ligament injury predisposition, like you would with a French bulldog, and those compressed back issues.
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But I'm sure very soon we will.
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You know I'm planning to adopt a lab, a little black lab puppy, in two years and I'm sure then I hope that that's an opportunity for me to know and you know knowledge is power I'll still take my little black lab puppy because that's my breed, that I love and that's the dog that I want.
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But you know I'll have to understand that I'm going to have to do certain things to try to prevent the injury that they are just predisposed to.
00:07:55.485 --> 00:07:58.533
Yeah, Like you said, the knowledge is definitely the power.
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I know we had a little dog one time and it was just a mix of a whole bunch of things and that was pre-DNA testing.
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But I remember specifically the vet talking about the fact that, because the dog had such a long back, you know watch the jumping, the jump, because of course he was always bing, bing, bing, bing, bing and it's like stop doing that.
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I feel like I'm always telling people stop doing that stop doing that, I know, but it's also redirecting to save things.
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So it's like I did a consultation yesterday on a nearly two-year-old golden doodle and was roughhousing with other dogs and another dog jumped on it and then since then has just not been right in the back end and we took all the x-rays, we are trying to figure out what's wrong.
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And I said well, one of the things you could do is that when in the house, what they were doing is they were throwing their food for their dog, so it was slipping and sliding in the home on their wood floors and splaying out the back legs and going around these hard little turns because it was a fun way to interact with their dog, and I was like gosh, you know, that's just asking for trouble.
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And your dog turns out has an iliopsoas injury and doing those kinds of activities is something that could really flare it up.
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So let's do other things instead.
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Like let's go on long hikes, like that's a nice safe activities, keeping things in straight lines, you know, keeping your dog on a tight leash on soft surfaces, so avoiding those concrete and staying on grass and dirt, you know.
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So it's not about necessarily not doing anything, it's just knowing what's safe and what's not.
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And then one thing about jumping that I like to bring up, just because something is something that most people are not aware of.
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And again, general practice vets don't have this little like cheat that I can, I can just tell everybody.
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But what it is, it is what's what is too high to jump, and what someone has to do is they just can take a tape measure and they can measure, as our dog is standing, from the paw, as they're standing on the floor, to the elbow, which, if you don't know what the elbow is, because sometimes people think elbow is the knee, so just Google it.
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Where's the dog's elbow right?
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Take a picture, we can put a picture up on the video.
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It's kind of where our elbow is, but sometimes they think it's in the back of the body.
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But regardless, take a tape measure and measure from the height of the floor to your dog's elbow.
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Anything above that, you're kind of in an injury risk zone.
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So then if you go to your couch and you're like gosh, my dog's elbow is 10 inches but my couch is, you know, 16 inches, I probably should try to give them a little bit of a step to go down to.
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That's a little bit safer than jumping on and off that.
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And because we know with injuries a lot of times that our dogs that are not athletes right, are these micro injuries, meaning that every day they're jumping out of this giant SUV onto concrete to get to the dog park over and over and over, and then the tendons of your shoulder and your spine is absorbing all those micro injuries.
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And then by the time your dog's 10, all of a sudden they're, you know, blowing the rotator cuff or have spinal injury.
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And you're like gosh, like my dog was never a dog athlete.
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How did that happen?
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Yeah, well, and that kind of ties in well to my next question about you know some of the what are some of the common mistakes that we make in you know, exercising our dogs and getting out there.
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So I mean, you've already told us a couple of things thinking about the surface that they're on and that more natural.
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I remember when I had my ACL done, it was like closed chain versus open chain.
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It's more natural movements that the doctor wanted me doing.
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And so when you think about a dog, like you said, hiking and their legs are going in the right direction that they normally would go in, and the way the knees are supposed to bend, not flipping hips out 80 degrees further than they're supposed to be and sliding and things like that, that's such great advice.
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As far as the jumping issue, because I had never, you know, I've always thought about my little chihuahua and I don't like it when she jumps off the chair because she's got these little spindly legs.
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But no, you never even really thought that there was a good way to know how high is too high.
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So thank you for sharing that.
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What other mistakes do you see people making that kind of?
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End them up coming to you and needing either surgery or rehab, or both.
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So one of the biggest ones is the dog chuck it and or Frisbee.
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So I was at a dog event and they had someone who was doing a dog's you know, sport or spectacle really or I don't want to be called a spectacle because it was just a demonstration and what they had done.
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They had a great relationship with their dog where they were throwing the Frisbee and it was jumping off their back and catching the Frisbee, midair and then also midair was turning around and then landing hard.
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So movements like that, where they're jumping and twisting and turning to get a ball or a Frisbee, those are things that can really put them at risk.
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And some of the times that I've had people come to me where all of a sudden their dog was playing, chuck at ball, jumped up, landed hard and then had a, suddenly had a spinal cord injury and couldn't walk and had to be rushed to the vet hospital and have an emergency spinal surgery.
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You know those types of injuries are, you know, caused by that that that type of impact to the spine and ball plays fun, like dogs, like balls, like that's what, and they love to have that.
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So what could we do safer?
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Well, why don't we just try to prevent some of the twisting and the jumping.
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So let's keep things in a straight line.
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Let's do it on a grass you know field, with nice, you know footing that they could dig their paws into.
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We're not in anywhere where there's lots of big potholes or sticks or other dogs to jump on them.
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So that's how I would say to do it safely.
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Yeah, that's a good one, and you had mentioned, you know, getting in and out of the vehicle for the dog parks, but that's another thing.
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I mean, I'm not a dog park person for a lot of reasons, but some of the.
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you know, when you get dogs even just my sometimes I feel like I live in a dog park running an animal rescue.
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But we've got, you know, four dogs that get outside and it's a nice day.
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And you've got, like I said, down from my tiny little spindly-legged chihuahua, who's pretty much smart enough to stay away from everybody, but then all the other knuckleheads, including my knucklehead who's already had her ACL repaired they're running, they're spinning, they're zooming around the pool, they're making these tight turns.
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So sometimes just monitoring how that play is happening and maybe taking a little more control over that, instead of just sitting in my chair and watching it happen, because it's kind of funny to see a bulldog zipping around in circles with the terrier but not good for the knee, I'm quite sure.
00:14:16.442 --> 00:14:29.530
Yeah, and then there's also one other thing, and I don't want to get too deep into it because people can certainly Google it or you know, look on my Instagram for examples but doing a warm up and a cool down before a vigorous activity.
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And you know people who have agility dogs, hunting dogs, dog working dogs, dog athletes they all know this and this isn't something that maybe the general pet owner would know.
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But there are things you should do for 90 seconds that you could do of a warmup for a dog, and then a cool down is really important, and what a cool down would mean would be I'm going to slowly walk my dog after they've done this vigorous activity, before I put them in my truck hot to go home.
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So I'm going to do a one minute walk.
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I'm going to also, during that time, start to look for a little bit of lameness.
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I'm going to see are they a bit gimpy in their back legs?
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Is their tail lower and it's never low, but now it is Is their head kind of hanging down?
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Watch for subtle signs of lameness and just changes in body posture as they're walking.
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After you've done some of that activity, and then also it's a great time to just do a little bit of like what I call dog yoga, which is when you can put them up on the curb and do a little bit of a spine stretch and as you're doing that, check their paws.
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Look at their paws, check for injuries that they could have sustained.
00:15:32.327 --> 00:15:42.346
So that's a great time during that cool down phase, to not only cool them down, to hopefully prevent injury, which is really that's why you want to do it is to prevent injury.
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Also, the spot injury is when that would be a great time to do that.
00:15:46.163 --> 00:15:46.765
Yeah, and that's.
00:15:46.765 --> 00:15:53.349
You know that's a great time to kind of give them the once over, and especially for us that are, you know, in hotter climates.
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You know you're always looking for, in addition to cuts and things like that on the pad, but you know, being very cautious about hot pavement and hopefully preventing but also looking for those types of injuries as well.
00:16:03.844 --> 00:16:06.966
You know you mentioned a couple of the signs of overdoing it.
00:16:06.966 --> 00:16:15.192
Let's say we don't necessarily notice anything today but, like Gigi I mentioned, like I'll see, you're walking down the hallway and it's just not a normal gait.
00:16:15.192 --> 00:16:26.807
There's a little bit of a we say a little bit of hitching or giddy up, and when we see things like that a limp or the changes that you mentioned, it's Should that be like an immediate run to the vet?
00:16:27.019 --> 00:16:29.649
Is it one of those things that you watch it and kind of see how it goes?
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Should you give them something Like if I had a hitch in my giddy up, we pop a pill and we go on about our business, right, we don't necessarily run to the doctor because my knee's a little sore from working out yesterday, kind of thing.
00:16:40.951 --> 00:16:43.147
What should we do when we see these things?
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So most injuries are muscular, skeletal, no-transcript.
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Those injuries get more chronic, meaning as they've.
00:17:20.228 --> 00:17:25.508
You've given it a week or two, the dog's getting better because that's a soft tissue injury that's healing.
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But then by the time you take it to the vet, your dog's at the vet, it's adrenaline's going, it's feeling good.
00:17:31.409 --> 00:17:34.521
The vet comes over for five minutes, especially a general practitioner.
00:17:34.521 --> 00:17:35.726
They don't have tons of time.
00:17:36.186 --> 00:17:37.369
Like I do as a rehab vet.
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I'm there for 45 minutes feeling every single bone and joint in your dog's body and muscle.
00:17:41.670 --> 00:17:43.782
They don't have a lot of time, those GP vets.
00:17:43.782 --> 00:17:51.255
So detecting that injury two weeks later the dog's feeling good at the vet hospital in five minutes is going to be really, really tough.
00:17:51.255 --> 00:17:59.153
So I don't think necessarily going to the emergency room is where I would go for sudden issues with limping and lameness.
00:17:59.153 --> 00:18:06.993
But I would get in with your regular veterinarian pretty soon when they could still be able to detect the injury and feel it.
00:18:06.993 --> 00:18:14.652
So I'm all about getting there early and then just knowing that lameness and limping is not normal and is a sign of pain.
00:18:15.012 --> 00:18:15.575
So that's.
00:18:15.615 --> 00:18:22.082
I think, something that people sometimes they're like well, he's really great, but he, you know, he runs after his ball Like he's the happiest dog.
00:18:22.082 --> 00:18:25.907
He goes on his his walk but as we go home he's not hitching the gate every step.
00:18:25.907 --> 00:18:34.223
You know, unfortunately that's a, that's a problem and and, uh, you know, maybe it's it's something that we can, we can fix and we can definitely help those dogs.
00:18:34.786 --> 00:18:39.643
Yeah, are there other things we could be doing to prevent some of the injuries that you see?
00:18:39.643 --> 00:18:47.488
Like I know we've gotten, we'll get bags and bags of donated items at the rescue and every once in a while there's like a doggy knee brace.
00:18:47.488 --> 00:18:49.352
I got one the other day in a bag.
00:18:49.352 --> 00:18:51.904
It was like the tiniest little knee brace.
00:18:51.904 --> 00:18:53.449
I'm thinking who can I put this on?
00:18:53.449 --> 00:18:54.171
Who needs a brace?
00:18:54.171 --> 00:18:59.580
You know, like is wrapping or bracing or doing any of that stuff or feeding them something different?
00:18:59.580 --> 00:19:03.952
What can we do to help prevent some of these injuries from happening?
00:19:04.420 --> 00:19:04.680
Yeah.
00:19:04.680 --> 00:19:18.511
So in regard to wrapping and bracing, I wouldn't suggest that, and the reason is that, because dogs come in so many shapes and sizes, getting a brace that's actually fit for your dog's body, you have to have them custom made to be effective.
00:19:18.511 --> 00:19:28.250
And custom made means that they've taken a mold, a cast of your dog's knee and they've recreated specifically for your their knee a brace.
00:19:28.250 --> 00:19:32.243
So if it's not something like that, it's not going to do much to stabilize.
00:19:32.585 --> 00:19:33.346
So it's not worth it.
00:19:34.128 --> 00:19:46.248
But what I would say you should do is you should supplement, and you should do supplements that are smart and things that actually help to, you know, stop with some of the breakdown in the body.
00:19:46.248 --> 00:19:48.170
So I have top two for that one.
00:19:48.170 --> 00:19:52.096
Okay, so one is actually collagen.
00:19:52.096 --> 00:20:16.855
So they did a study of dogs that would run I don't know what the distance was at the top of my head, but it was, you know, I think was a mile intensely at the end and they had these dogs they're young and healthy and they were running and they actually sampled their blood after and they found that they basically produced at the end of the run all these biomarkers of things that break down the collagen in their knee.
00:20:16.855 --> 00:20:24.913
So a normal, healthy dog, just with that kind of sudden physical activity, will start to break down their joints.
00:20:24.913 --> 00:20:40.346
And one of the things that they did in the study is that then they gave half those dogs collagen and the dogs that were supplemented with collagen actually had less of those biomarkers of inflammation of the cartilage in their blood.
00:20:40.346 --> 00:20:42.960
So that would be something that I would say like.
00:20:43.300 --> 00:20:59.972
I suggest not necessarily joint preventatives like glucosamine and chondroitin, because I think the evidence for those types of supplements are less so, but there is evidence for things like collagen being protective to the joints, so that's something that I would put my young, healthy dog on.
00:21:00.941 --> 00:21:15.673
And then the other thing is a supplement from fertilized egg yolks and it's called fortitropin, and what this fertilized egg yolk supplement does is it helps to stop the breakdown of muscle associated with injury.
00:21:15.673 --> 00:21:24.963
So when your dog was injured and they hurt he hurt his ACL his body started to produce something that would break down the muscle.
00:21:24.963 --> 00:21:30.406
And you've had issues with your own body, and I've had issues with my own body as well.
00:21:30.406 --> 00:21:39.913
I know when I have an injury, you're weaker, and you're weaker because your body is trying to heal itself, but in trying to heal itself it starts to break down that muscle.
00:21:39.913 --> 00:21:55.932
So this ingredient for the trope in which my top dog supplement is called Myo's Pet, so it's M-Y-O-S-P-E-T that supplement which again, that's a fertilized yogurt, prevents that breakdown of muscle, which is great, because you don't ever think of the muscle.
00:21:55.932 --> 00:21:57.304
It's all about joint supplements.
00:21:57.545 --> 00:21:59.050
Yeah, so, and all about the joints.
00:21:59.311 --> 00:22:09.555
I go to the pet food aisle and there's a million joint supplements and not one thing dedicated to muscle, and we know that if it's not going to be a joint injury, it's going to be a muscle injury.
00:22:09.555 --> 00:22:16.824
Yeah, so that's what I do with my young, healthy, active dogs.
00:22:16.824 --> 00:22:17.305
I get them on Myo's Pet.
00:22:17.305 --> 00:22:21.981
I get them on a good quality collagen that has three types of collagen, if you could find it, because then that's also good for the skin.
00:22:21.981 --> 00:22:23.564
So that's what I would suggest.
00:22:23.564 --> 00:22:32.336
Doing things like that, I think, if it is prevention, I mean studies in that MyosPet have mostly been with injured dogs and senior dogs and there's lots of science behind it.
00:22:32.336 --> 00:22:37.171
But you know, I give it to my young, healthy dogs as well, just as a preventative.
00:22:37.711 --> 00:22:46.671
Yeah, and you're talking like across the board, like if I've got a young dog, let's just start doing that, obviously, unless there's some contraindication that we've talked to our vet about.
00:22:46.900 --> 00:22:49.868
Yeah, exactly, and I, you know, and I think, cause it's like why not?
00:22:49.868 --> 00:22:57.369
And it's one of those things where I had that dog with an iliopsoas strain and they're like gosh, like how do I prevent this from happening again?
00:22:57.369 --> 00:23:07.289
I was like, well, your dog has a muscle problem, so you need to be on a muscle supplement that makes sure that they're strong, you know and then you have to do exercises, which is a whole, nother part of it that we can kind of dive into.
00:23:07.329 --> 00:23:18.415
if you want to dive into dog exercise, which is, like my favorite, most fun thing on the planet to do with your dogs and to teach people and to bond with them, but yeah, so I do it as a preventative.
00:23:18.415 --> 00:23:22.029
You would definitely do it if your dog was a senior and had an injury.
00:23:22.029 --> 00:23:24.319
That's a no brainer because of science is behind it.
00:23:24.721 --> 00:23:26.784
But I like it as a preventative as well, yeah.
00:23:27.224 --> 00:23:33.174
Yeah, let's talk about the older guys and or the guys you know that have had an injury.
00:23:33.174 --> 00:23:44.267
I mean, I think there are some people who would say, okay, my dog is now getting older, so I'm not going to worry about exercise anymore or activity anymore, as long as they can go out and go to the bathroom by themselves.
00:23:44.267 --> 00:23:46.843
Is you know, is it good to continue the activity?
00:23:46.843 --> 00:23:51.269
And you know, is it basically the same signs that I'm looking for, that I've overdone it?
00:23:51.269 --> 00:23:55.974
Or how do we keep those guys moving so that they have good quality of life up to the end?
00:23:56.355 --> 00:23:56.635
Yeah.
00:23:56.635 --> 00:24:08.294
So this is actually the reason I got into veterinary rehab was because I learned that the number one reason, aside from having cancer, for euthanasia in older dogs was basically being frail.
00:24:08.294 --> 00:24:16.061
Everything inside them is healthy and they feel good and they could look at you and be like mom, I'm all going to go play, but my body is breaking down.
00:24:16.061 --> 00:24:31.246
And when I found out that there's an area of vet med called physical rehabilitation, which is like the dog body shop and I could fix that and increase their mobility and have them moving and have them healthy, I had to be part of it.
00:24:31.246 --> 00:24:38.611
So there are so many things that you could do for those older dogs and one of the things that you should do is to never stop moving.
00:24:38.611 --> 00:24:45.731
Take them on walks and if they're slowing down in their walks, try to do shorter walks a couple times a day.
00:24:46.339 --> 00:24:51.130
I've heard people like I get this far down the road and then I'm picking the dog up and having to carry him home.
00:24:51.130 --> 00:24:53.523
It's like, well, maybe you shouldn't have gone so far down the road.
00:24:53.523 --> 00:24:57.961
Like maybe go around the block or go up and down your own street instead of going so far.
00:24:58.762 --> 00:25:01.490
Amy, that is the advice that I give people all the time.
00:25:01.490 --> 00:25:17.711
If that's, you know, if your dog is only getting like four houses down the block, do one house or two houses down the block and then come back and then next, you know, do that for two weeks and then challenge them a little bit and go two and a half houses like, and then just kind of slowly try to increase their endurance.
00:25:17.711 --> 00:25:25.444
But you know, when dogs have those problems, especially your senior dogs, that's not a problem with the cardiovascular system, like a lot of people think.
00:25:25.444 --> 00:25:27.788
It is like their heart and lungs are failing.
00:25:27.788 --> 00:25:28.230
That's a.
00:25:28.590 --> 00:25:41.732
That's a problem of strength and it's a problem of not having muscle strength, because as a senior dog you know there's certain biological things that happen to senior dogs that make it hard for them to build and maintain muscle.
00:25:41.732 --> 00:25:46.511
And so if you don't have muscle to power yourself on that walk, you just don't go as far.
00:25:46.511 --> 00:25:49.549
That's why we say keep them moving, because then if you keep moving you keep building that muscle.
00:25:49.549 --> 00:25:49.700
You just don't go as far.
00:25:49.700 --> 00:25:51.682
That's why we say keep moving, because then if you keep moving you keep building that muscle.
00:25:52.265 --> 00:25:53.288
Well, and it's the same for us.
00:25:53.288 --> 00:25:56.366
I mean everything that you just said, all this fantastic advice.
00:25:56.366 --> 00:26:02.028
If you take out the word dog and put people or put your own name in there, all of that is good advice.
00:26:02.028 --> 00:26:02.830
Do what you can.
00:26:02.830 --> 00:26:06.824
Keep moving, the inability to move and the lack of activity.
00:26:06.824 --> 00:26:19.888
I was watching a video the other day that was talking about a certain group of doctors was referring to recliners as your pre-coffin, because you get older and you settle into that recliner and you think you can't do it.
00:26:19.949 --> 00:26:35.888
So, therefore, you don't do it and you know you lose your, then you lose your ability to do it, and so you know this is, you know, whether you're a younger person or you know, but I think, especially with older people that might have older pets, like this is going to be good for you to get in your butt out there and walk.
00:26:35.888 --> 00:26:44.156
You know, to start with two houses, then four houses, and and make it a challenge to have both of you live more active and healthier lifestyle.
00:26:48.140 --> 00:27:10.972
And exactly, and it's one of those things, too, where you know, if I'm a senior citizen, like I'm aware that I'm slowing down and I'm getting slower, so I'm going to do things like do water aerobics, like continue to exercise, try to eat in healthy ways that build muscle, and I could even go to you know the human, uh, the market and I can see all the different things and you know areas of supplements that they can do to build muscle and dogs, like I said, don't have that.
00:27:15.299 --> 00:27:16.702
So like knowing that there are things like that.
00:27:16.702 --> 00:27:22.587
When I was talking about that Mayo's pet supplement, that's actually the, the study that they did, which was groundbreaking, to show the benefits of their product.
00:27:22.587 --> 00:27:31.263
They studied it in senior dogs and they actually showed that the senior dogs were less frail, and so you know it's like they're losing muscle.
00:27:31.263 --> 00:27:35.970
Let's get them on a nice supplement to help maintain that muscle and keep them moving.
00:27:35.970 --> 00:27:37.952
Do exercises, Do you know?
00:27:37.952 --> 00:27:38.794
Do your stretches?
00:27:38.794 --> 00:27:40.056
Like there's a lot that you could do.
00:27:40.056 --> 00:27:48.931
The one thing I want people to know is that please don't think that there's something we can can offer your dog, because there's something that you have to do that you have to say goodbye for that reason.
00:27:48.931 --> 00:27:50.712
Like there is, there are things.
00:27:51.114 --> 00:27:52.855
Yeah, and and investigate that.
00:27:52.935 --> 00:28:07.507
I mean there's nothing sadder than seeing your pet whether it's your dog or I mean we've been talking about dogs, but cats too, you know to see them get to that point where they're slowing down and they're just, you know, not themselves, and you start really questioning their quality of life.
00:28:07.586 --> 00:28:14.582
And if there's something we can do to prolong that I mean, obviously everybody's body's going to, you know, wear out and give out at some point.
00:28:14.582 --> 00:28:31.021
But if we can prolong that and give them the best quality of life by doing the things that you've talked about and by giving you know to, I mean that's to me that's brilliant, that you know addressing the joint issues and the muscle issues, because those two are the obviously pivotal in keeping us all moving.
00:28:31.021 --> 00:28:37.767
You know, if we could be doing those things and have that better quality of life, I mean it's something that we should all be doing for sure.
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