1. Vision: First of all, the vision of dogs entering old age will start to decline. The eyes of older dogs look a little cloudy, which may be a sign of cataracts. Vision loss is not a major handicap for dogs, as dogs rely more on their sense of smell, relatively speaking. 2. Hearing: As the years pass, a dog’s hearing may also decline. For example, when the owner calls from a greater distance, the dog is slow to respond, acting as if he did not hear, and does not come running immediately as he used to. Deafness is especially severe after the dog is over 10 years old, occurring in about 1/10 of dogs, and increases to 1/6 after the age of 14. 3. Mental abnormalities: Mental abnormalities in older dogs have now become a new challenge for veterinarians and dog owners. As dogs live longer, this mental illness becomes more common. One of the common mental abnormalities in dogs is “geriatric dissociative depression,” in which the dog wakes up suddenly in the middle of the night, starts barking and panting, and shows obvious signs of sadness.4. Tumors: When a dog has a tumor, a routine surgical removal can be life-threatening due to excessive bleeding or infection. Nowadays, cryosurgery, in which frozen liquid nitrogen is applied to the tumor with a special needle to isolate it from the surrounding healthy tissue, does not require a scalpel. 5. Kidney failure: This problem is one of the main causes of death in older dogs. The kidneys of dogs have a surprising overload capacity, and even if the kidneys are diseased, they are able to maintain normal physiological function until the diseased part of the kidney accounts for more than 2/3 of the entire kidney the kidney will not manifest itself. The most obvious sign of renal failure is a significant increase in water intake and a corresponding increase in urine volume. It is usually important to pay close attention to the water intake of older dogs for early detection of kidney failure problems. However, the amount of water a dog drinks is affected by the ambient temperature and the type of food eaten; for example, eating dry dog food in hot weather may cause a dramatic increase in water intake. In addition, when dogs go for walks, they often drink in muddy pools and puddles. Therefore, it is not correct to judge that a dog has kidney failure by the amount of water it drinks up alone, but by a combination of many factors. Increased urination due to kidney disease, some nutrients required by the body, such as B vitamins, may be lost with the urine discharge, leading to deficiency. In addition, the absorption of calcium in the body is also affected. Another telltale sign of kidney failure in older dogs is bad breath, which can of course be caused by dental disease.6. Dental disease: Dental disease can affect dogs of all ages, but is more common in older individuals. If tartar builds up on the teeth, the gums may become inflamed and the teeth may begin to attach less firmly. Because the gums are eroded, bacteria can easily invade the roots of the teeth and cause abscesses in the flesh, triggering severe toothache and interfering with eating.
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