Penny turned 12.5 this Summer and her first litter just turned 9 with all of them still healthy and happy. She’s still spunky and takes her job as guardian of all of us seriously. We check her bloodwork twice a year with a full panel that tests all her body functions and a complete urinalysis and her panel this time was absolutely perfect which is pretty awesome considering her age. We also had the opportunity to BAER test her hearing this past Spring. This is a test which measures brain waves when exposed to sound. We knew she was becoming a little hard of hearing, and joked it was selective so we were surprised to learn that her left ear hears no sound at all and her right ear can only hear sounds at the level of a yell or louder. Good thing we have taught her hand signals for the most basic commands like come, stay, sit, down.
As you can see below, she really sleeps deeply with her hearing loss. She sleeps on the bed between us each night and prefers a sleep number of 40 but still refuses to use any sort of dog bed any other time.
While we always hope for a long full life of 15 years or so, we are super grateful that we’ve had her this long and will treasure anymore time we are given and we do everything in our power to keep her nice and healthy.
We are looking forward to trying a new offering for osteoarthritis that is going to be available next month to our Veterinary Hospital. It’s a once-a-month injection and although I don’t think Penny has a real hard time getting around, I understand that dogs hide their pain very well and at the age of 12.5, I’m sure she must have some arthritis. I will update when she starts the medication.
Along with all the recommendations below, Penny would like to suggest that weekly pupachinos and pupcups have contributed to her longevity.
We feed Purina Pro Plan Sport Chicken & Rice. We have for a looooooong time and believe it is a great food. We strongly advise that anyone searching for dog food or thinking of switching, consider a brand of food that has been around for decades with research and testing. There are many pop up “boutique” brands that have appeared in the last 10 years or so that spend a lot on marketing and gimmicks to try to attract the loving pet owner but the bottom line is to trust the research.
This is what we feed and recommend. They also have a weight management version of this food that Olive is on.
Purina Pro Plan Sport https://amzn.to/3Pur3SP
This is what we supplement with. The fish oil is given in the morning and the vitamin c is given in the dinner bowl, both with plain greek yogurt on top. We also give Penny a joint supplement at night. We do give her the Large size even though she is only 54 pounds as it’s more cost effective than giving multiple of the small.
Vitamin C https://amzn.to/3EQuezq
Joint Supplement https://amzn.to/3LAq2HA
Fish Oil https://amzn.to/456Yrox
We also give daily dental chews that we LOVE because they really help keep the teeth clean.
Dental Chews https://amzn.to/48upAF0
Other items the dogs recommend 🙂
Hip Jerky https://amzn.to/3LuOMBm We give one of these to each dog at night.
Buddy Biscuits Itty Bitty https://amzn.to/3ZqZzlH The dogs love these for reward treats and they a nice size to offer multiple times in the day with not too many added calories.
Nutro Treats https://amzn.to/48skI2R These Smell so good and Grandpa Larry next door loves giving them out to the dogs when they come visit at the fence.
BeneBone Wishbone https://amzn.to/3LuOMBm The dogs love this as their favorite chew
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