Latest / Senior Pet Talk | for dogs + cats / Welcome to Senior Pet Talk!
Transcript
- Amanda Steffen: You have Googled the symptoms at midnight. You have sat in your vet's office, you nodded along, and you've driven home with more questions than you came in with. Something is off and you can feel it. Your dog is slowing down, your cat has gotten quieter, and your gut is telling you that it's more than just age. But the blood work is normal and the x-rays look fine. But you know your pet. Maybe they are starting to pace more at night, they're sleeping, they're But they're having more interruptions in that sleep. They don't get up to greet you at the door anymore. They don't finish their meals as quickly as they used to. Their behaviors have shifted just enough to notice, but not enough to be able to describe it to your vet effectively. You want to know if there are alternative options, but you're afraid to ask. You are not overreacting. This is your baby and you deserve all of the information out there. And they deserve more than he's just getting older. I know that feeling because I lived it. My dog Floyd, he was my hard dog. He was with me through college, my husband, moving, and our first baby. He essentially raised me. And when he started to decline, I, as a veterinarian, still felt completely alone in figuring out how to care for him. I didn't have integrated medicine then and I didn't have the tools that I do now. But when I lost Floyd, something shifted. And I felt like my passion in veterinary medicine shine down from under the bridge where he was. And I promised myself that no pet parent was going to feel alone. If I was around. So I have an in-home senior pet practice named Floyd's Tale in his memory. And because of everything his story has taught me and turned me into, this podcast is the next chapter of that promise. I am Dr. Mina Stepman, an integrated veterinarian with over 10 years of experience, certification, and veterinarian acupuncture, and focus exclusively on senior divine cows. I run Floyd's Tale Mobile Veterinary Services, an in-home concierge integrated clinic for senior dogs and cats, and I created the senior pet roadmap program, which is the only multi-vet integrated medicine program built specifically for Asian pets. My approach is very simple. Each pet deserves a personalized approach their golden years, combining Western medicine and eastern holistic wisdom to give a whole body care plan. Conventional diagnostics, but adding acupuncture, nutrition, herbs, rehab, palliative care. We're doing everything because they deserve everything and it would have helped. Everything I share is gonna be science-fact, judgment-free, and compassionate, because I believe that everyone is doing the best that they can with the information that they have in each moment, and I am just here to give you more of it. So senior pet talk is your comprehensive and compassionate guide to caring for an aging dog and cat. Every week we're gonna cover stuff that your vet doesn't have time to explain to you in your short flight notes: pain, nutrition, dementia, mobility, cancer, end of life, and more. So you're gonna be able to tell the difference between normal aging and what actually is something that you need to take to your vet. You're going to hear solo episodes from me and conversations with veterinary experts in both Eastern and Western medicine and with real pet parents who are living this alongside you. After listening to the show, you're going to feel less alone in those hard moments and less helpless. You'll know how to walk into a vet appointment, knowing the right questions to ask and feel confident enough to advocate for your pet's needs. And they're going to have more good days because of it. That is why this show exists. If you have a senior dog or cat, or you just want to get ahead of it all, this show is for you. Please hit follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode. And come found me on Instagram at dr.amanda.vet. That's where we can keep this conversation going between these episodes. I am Dr. Amanda Stefan. This is Senior Pet Talk, and I am so glad that you're here.