0 Pooches: On Growing Older

We know a lot of people are surprised when we tell them our pups are Elderbulls.

We were surprised too.

Not celebrating the pups' birthdays, we don't really have anything to mark the passage of time, and for the past 5 years we would tell people the pups were 4 and 5...until we actually did the math ourselves.

We know there are so many benefits to having older pups, and we know when we need to adopt again we will definitely go older.

We are learning a lot as our pups age, and we would love to hear about other peoples' experiences. Here are some things we've been learning:

Visit Your Vet Often

We believe in doing a lot of preventative care to avoid other issues later. While we used to just take our pups in when we noticed problems, we know take the pooches to the vet twice a year for a Senior Blood Panel to help us catch and monitor any problems that might develop. Through these visits we caught an early kidney issue which we've been regulating through a change in diet.
We are also really careful about watching their lumps and bumps. Miss M had a scare which actually did test as a cancer. Luckily since we caught it early we were able to remove it.
We just noticed Mr. B had something that we thought was a blister from his seat belt; it turned out to be a mast cell tumor. We were able to remove it, along with a couple of other bumps, with strong chances that it didn't spread already.

Walk Around:

We walk a lot.
At least a couple of miles a day (except during the Polar Vortex).
At first I wasn't sure if it was actually doing more harm than good, but our vet told us it was good to continue our low-impact exercising.
We have a friend who had his pit bulls live to be 16 to 17, and he was always out walking them even more than us.
So we keep walking.

Prepare for Shrinking:

The one thing we didn't expect was for our pups to shrink. As they get older, they begin losing muscle tone especially in their face.
The just seem smaller.
Some friends have told us it becomes harder for older pups to keep weight on.

One thing we have noticed, is that Mr. B is more reluctant to jump into our car himself, and E has been having to lift him to carry him into the car.
Does anyone have experience or advice about ramps or lifting harnesses?
And any other tips for as your pups grow older?

Also:
Our favorite.
And this one.
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