As dogs age, their welfare needs evolve significantly. Proactive geriatric veterinary care, pain management, and environmental adaptation can maintain quality of life and dignity through the senior years.
Senior dog welfare is shaped by the quality of pain assessment and management more than almost any other factor. Arthritis pain in older dogs is frequently undertreated because dogs mask pain behaviours, owners interpret changes as normal ageing, and some veterinarians underestimate pain prevalence. Modern multimodal pain management including NSAIDs, gabapentin, physiotherapy, and hydrotherapy can dramatically improve comfort and mobility. Environmental adaptation — ramps to furniture, non-slip flooring, raised feeding bowls, orthopaedic beds — costs little but significantly reduces daily pain. Quality of life assessment should be an ongoing conversation between owners and vets from early seniority, not only at crisis point, to allow proactive management and timely, compassionate end-of-life decision-making.