Comfort upgrades for senior pets

Ageing in pets shows up first as small avoidances: the dog that hesitates at the car boot, the cat that stops using the windowsill. Owners usually read those as personality changes when they are mobility changes, and most of them can be made easier with a handful of adjustments to the house.

Floors

Hard floors are the biggest quiet problem in a modern house. A dog with weakening back legs cannot get purchase on tile or laminate, and the effort of not slipping is exhausting. Lay runners along the routes the animal actually uses, bed to door and bed to bowl, rather than trying to carpet the whole room.

Beds

• Memory foam with a firm base, not a soft nest. Sinking in is harder to get out of.
• Low or cut-away sides so a stiff animal can walk in rather than climb.
• Somewhere warm and out of a draught. Old joints feel a cold floor much more.
• A washable cover, because continence changes are common and a bed you cannot clean gets thrown away.

Bowls and steps

Raising a food bowl to chest height helps a dog with neck or shoulder pain eat without bracing. A ramp into the car saves both of you the lift. Introduce it slowly, with treats, on the flat before it is ever used at an angle. For cats, a step to a favourite windowsill restores an entire habit that had quietly stopped.

Slowing down is not the same as being in pain, and only your vet can tell you which one you are watching.

Grooming

Older cats groom less and mat more, particularly along the spine where they can no longer reach. Short, frequent sessions with a soft brush, and a comb kept for tangles, prevent the pelts that eventually need clipping under sedation. Keep nails short too: an animal that moves less wears its claws less, and overgrown claws change the way it stands.

None of this substitutes for a proper senior check. Pain in older animals is routinely under-treated because it looks like ageing, and weight, dental disease and arthritis are all far more manageable when they are found early.