the Senior Dog Medicine Chest

Lucy resting after tumor removal surgery earlier this year...

One of the primary goals at Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary is keeping the dogs as comfortable as possible in their golden years. Surgery is rarely an option with senior dogs because the benefits don't have time to outweigh the discomfort and stress caused by a surgery and because senior dogs are less resilient after surgery than younger dogs. The solution almost always lies with a good quality food, a comfortable living environment and proper medication. In this post....I'm talking about medication.
Twice a day, while lining up the food bowls, we also line up the medications, making sure that the right dog gets the right meds. We have made modifications to the medications, with Dr Benner's recommendations, to try to find the best solutions for each dog. If something doesn't seem to be working, we'll try something else.

Right now, here's the lineup:

Charlotte: has been on Phenobarbital since she was 6 months old for seizures. She also gets Joint Max twice a day and low dosage prednisone for mobility problems. We recently switched her from carprofren to prednisone and have seen noticeably better results.

Rosco: was recently diagnosed with hypothyroidism and now takes Soloxine twice a day.

Asteroid and Maggie are taking Benedryl which helps their allergies.

Daisy: takes Joint Max twice a day and carprofen every morning for knee problems.

Layla and Zuzu are taking Proin daily for incontinence.

Hunny Bunny takes carprofren and Joint Max every day for joint stiffness.

So there you have it. Eight of our thirteen seniors are taking some sort of medication. It gets complicated at feeding time.....