★★★★★
You need to keep your eye on them as they age and ensure they can reach to the water bowl without any issues. At a certain point last fall, my dog stopped being able to drink from the water bowl and lost his balance a few times. Once that happened, he got scared to drink from the bowl (at any level that I placed it), as he toppled over while he was drinking. So I started to balance him by putting an arm under his belly and holding the water bowl up to him. Takes a lot of work to figure out where they feel safe enough to drink once they've had a scary fall, and you have to keep at it and adapt as they lose mobility.
The other thing I learned this past weekend that I wanted to share before I forget is that I tried to put him on a home-cooked turkey and rice + supplements diet from a very good company based in NY that shipped the frozen food to me. As I lowered the amount of freeze-dried raw turkey patties and raised the amount of turkey/rice on this new diet, he suddenly got so weak he couldn't get himself off his bed. And that caused a lot of panic in him. I theorized that he wasn't getting adequate protein and had too many carbs in this new diet and immediately put him back on his freeze-dried raw patties with just a small amount of the turkey and rice mixed in. 12 hours later, he could get himself off his bed again.
I just wanted to throw this out there for anyone dealing with an aging woof.
I have read that dogs can easily live to 18 on a raw food diet, and I now suspect it is exactly the type of protein they need as they age. But you can't forget the water. Dogs will rapidly decline in a matter of days if they get dehydrated.
No vet has ever told me these important things about raw protein and watching the water bowl for adequate consumption, so I hope this information will help other dog owners.
