My Secrets to a Long, Healthy Life for my Senior Dogs
A Furry Friday Post
Today is Friday, so I’m making a “Furry Friday” dog-related post because I’m in Nashville, Tennessee for my mid-year visit to the heart transplant clinic. Don’t worry. It’s just a checkup. I scheduled this post last weekend, between packing and making sure Gidget and Bruce are secure with a friend while we travel.
Over the past forty years, I have shared my life with several dogs who lived well into their teen years.
My Beagle-mix Snoopy, whom I inherited from my first husband, lived to be seventeen years old, despite losing the use of one of her back legs due to a gunshot wound long before I came into her life. (She was shot while stealing chickens from the neighbors coop.)
Mallory, my little white terrier mix, was eighteen when she succumbed to Canine Cognitive Disease (CCD), but her body was still going strong.
Annabelle, my purebred Beagle, was just shy of sixteen years old when cancer finally took her down.
Gidget McFidget, my little black and tan terrier mix, will turn sixteen on Valentine’s Day, and she is still a spicy little nugget.
So, what’s my secret to canine longevity?
There are a lot of variables, but I believe the most significant thing is diet. My dogs didn’t eat a diet consisting of plain kibble nuggets alone.
When I had Snoopy, I was very poor and couldn’t always afford dog food. She ate what I ate much of the time. Toward the end of her life, that was a lot of Banquet frozen dinners – usually the turkey and dressing – because they were 99 cents at the grocery store. We also shared Ramen noodles and hard-boiled eggs, lots of eggs. Oddly enough, eggs were a really cheap source of protein back then. When I could afford it, she got wet dog food, whatever brand was on sale.
Mallory enjoyed an era of better financial stability in my life. I shudder to think that I fed her dry dog food, usually Pedigree, topped with whatever I made for dinner, usually meat and vegetables. In a pinch, she received wet dog food as a topper. She quickly adapted to this and refused to eat dry kibble, a sign of a very smart girl.
By the time I adopted Annabelle, I upgraded the dry kibble to Blue Buffalo, but I kept the habit of table scraps or wet dog food as a topper. She seemed to enjoy either one. During the years with Annabelle, I fostered dozens of dogs, and they all enjoyed a little scoop of something extra on their food as well.
When she was thirteen years old, Annabelle was diagnosed with a tumor on her liver and spleen. She underwent surgery to remove her spleen and a portion of her liver. The vet gave her a guarded prognosis of six months after surgery. Her appetite was poor during her surgical recovery, and I began cooking for her every day. She was a fan of fresh-cooked meals and regained her strength quickly.
Her surgery was in December 2019, with her recovery stretching into the Covid shutdown. Cooped up at home with an ailing dog, I took a deep dive into canine nutrition, finding the book “The Forever Dog: Surprising New Science to Help Your Canine Companion Live Younger, Healthier, & Longer.” Of course I ordered the book.
The Forever Dog a book by Rodney Habib and Karen Shaw Becker - Bookshop.org US
Following some of the ideas in the book, I came up with the recipe for what I call “Chikkie Slop.” Annabelle loved the concoction and gobbled it down at every meal. I don’t know if it was the food, the TLC I provided, or just plain hound dog stubbornness, but Annabelle lived for twenty-seven months after her surgery instead of the projected six months.
When I showed the recipe to her vet, he approved it and said it sounded perfectly healthy to him. Although Annabelle passed nearly three years ago, I still make it for Gidget McFidget, who is nearly sixteen, and her pal Bruce Wayne, estimated to be twelve years old. I still purchase kibble, Fromm brand now, and mix it 1/3 kibble to 2/3 chikkie slop at every meal.
You’re probably thinking that it’s very bougie and expensive to make my dog’s food, but it’s really not. I have found the price of homemade food to be equivalent to, or even cheaper than, buying wet dog food. I stock up on the chicken meat when the grocery store runs Buy One Get One Free specials and freeze the surplus.
Twice a week, I pull out the instapot, toss in a package of chicken, add veggies, and cook. The standard veggies I use are sweet potato, carrots, and green beans. I often add to the base recipe. Additions include celery, broccoli, spinach, asparagus, and blueberries.
After cooking for 15 minutes in the instapot and allowing it to cool, I run it through the food processor on low speed until it’s the consistency of chicken salad. During the last spin, I add a ½ cup of fresh or frozen blueberries to give it a boost of antioxidants. I store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator and feed it to them twice a day.
Chikkie Slop Recipe
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken
1 lb sweet potatoes, peeled
1 lb carrots, peeled
1 cup green beans, fresh or frozen, not canned
½ cup chicken bone broth or water
Optional additions:
Celery, broccoli, spinach, asparagus, blueberries, chicken gizzards
Chikkie slop will stay good in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, and up to 3 months in the freezer.
Nutritional Supplements
Along with the chikkie slop, I give my dogs some nutritional supplements. To help protect their joints, I give them Extend joint powder. You can find it on Chewy.
I discovered Extend when my Beagle girl, Blossom Possum, had double ACL surgery in 2015. She was a contemporary of Annabelle, but she only lived to be twelve years old. She came from a difficult background of living in an outdoor pen as a hunting dog and being forced to bear multiple litters of puppies. Her health was precarious when she came to me at six years of age.
With the supplementation of Extend, Blossom regained the use of her back legs and resumed raiding the garbage can soon after her surgery. I have continued to use the supplement on my dogs ever since, and Gidget still climbs stairs at her age.
Another supplement I’ve added recently, after discontinuing the Librela injections, is a CBD capsule from ElleVet. Home - Go ElleVet
Gidget has been taking the CBD soft gels for a couple of months, and she is back to her sassy self, squeaking her toys and barking at the Rottweiler across the street. I can’t say for sure her improvement is due to the CBD soft gels, but I’m going to keep giving them to her.
Holistic Practices
One other thing I have added recently is chiropractic adjustments. Gidget had her first adjustment a couple weeks ago. She was limping when she walked through the house and was no longer interested in chasing her ball. After her adjustment, she came home and galloped through the house, stole a squeaky toy from Bruce and proceeded to gut it in front of him. She is back to her sassy self!
I hope this gives you some ideas for keeping your pups happy and healthy for a long time. If you have any other suggestions of what you use to keep your pups healthy and happy, please let us know in the comments!
If I were a dog, I would want to be lucky enough to be one of yours!
I have a 15 yo golden retriever who just survived surgery to remove 2 big non Cancerous growths on her back that were getting infected. Because of her age the vet didn’t want to do surgery but did after I spent $$$$$ going to a cardiologist for an EKG which said she is fine! She has never been on any meds for anything and still loves her 2 mile walks. I feed her Farmers Dog, mixed with fresh veggies, a little canned pumpkin, and whatever else I have that’s nutritious in the fridge. My point is healthy food for dogs does work in so many ways. If you can, it’s really a no brainer for our best friends!