One of the tough realities of opening our hearts to a Cavalier (or any other dog) is that their life span does not match our own. While their life span may range 12-14 years (or longer), we all know that 25 years would not be enough! As our pups age, or deal with serious illnesses, managing their quality of life becomes key.
Since our work in the Cavalier Alliance is focused on senior and special-needs Cavaliers, we created a spreadsheet to track our dogs’ health while in the program and shared that data with our veterinary care providers and 24 hour animal hospital affiliates. We also shared the prototype with several families to see if they found the tracking helpful. We incorporated changes and now want to share it with you as a resource.
Of course, an assessment like this does not make recommendations as to quality of life decisions – it simply provides a tracking and a discussion point as to your dog’s health and activity levels. We recommend completing this assessment on an annual basis while they are healthy and more frequently (weekly or monthly) if in the midst of a more serious illness. You can download the pdf below:
Cavalier Alliance Quality of Life Assessment Chart
We hope you find it a useful tool in the on-going care of your Cavalier. If you find this chart and the other resources on our site useful, please consider making a donation to benefit the Cavaliers in our program.
Comments
Post Date
July 12, 2015
😉 He does have an asymptomatic grade 4-5 heart murmur that will need monitored in the years ahead.
