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Dog owners often face the heartbreak of seeing their beloved pets age faster than they do, leading to difficult decisions about their care in their senior years.
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a tool that could make these decisions a little easier by assessing frailty in older dogs.
This tool is designed to help pet owners and veterinarians evaluate the health and quality of life of aging dogs, potentially offering insight into their short-term mortality.
The tool is part of the university’s canine neuro-aging program and works by evaluating several indicators commonly associated with aging in dogs, such as mobility, muscle weakness, and social activity.
The initial phase analyzed data from 51 dogs to identify relevant frailty indicators, while the second phase tested the tool on a cohort of 198 dogs aged nine years or older from various clinical settings.
This frailty phenotype was found to predict short-term mortality effectively, regardless of age, sex, or weight, and performed reliably across different veterinary services.
It uses a questionnaire that pet owners can complete, focusing on five main areas: nutritional status, exhaustion, muscle condition, social activity, and overall mobility.
If a dog shows impairment in three of these areas, they are classified as frail, making them almost five times more likely to pass away within the next six months.
By using this frailty assessment, pet owners can have more informed conversations with their veterinarians about their senior dogs’ care options.
In some cases, it might lead to decisions to pursue aggressive treatment, while in other cases, it could suggest that palliative care or even euthanasia is the most compassionate choice.
This tool provides a structured way to measure frailty and gives owners a better sense of what their aging pet might be experiencing.
Though still in its early stages, the researchers believe it will contribute to a better understanding of aging in dogs and assist pet owners in making those tough decisions with more clarity and less guilt.
The study was published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science, marking a step forward in the field of animal gerontology.
It offers a potential way to navigate the complexities of caring for an aging dog with both compassion and knowledge.
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