Caring for a Senior Dog or Cat: Bed Sores, Eating, Breathing, and Night Care

Last updated: August 15, 2026

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Jump to what you need

• Bed sores
• Eating
• Toileting
• Water
• Breathing
• Legs & joints
• Night watch
• Dementia & night crying
• Mouth care
• Home setup
• Walks

Waking up over and over in the night to check on them. That's part of life with a senior dog or cat for some of us. What's hard about caregiving changes from day to day. For each of those worries, here are things you can try starting today. What matters isn't "good care." It's care where you can sleep at night and keep going. If you're worried about your pet's condition, talk to a vet before trying anything written here.

① Bed sores

For dogs who are largely bedridden, turning them every 2–3 hours is often cited as a baseline. But keeping that up around the clock, by hand alone, isn't realistic.

A gentler approach to repositioning at night

Bed sores form where body weight keeps pressing on a bony spot. The point of repositioning is to relieve that pressure — not to hit the "every 2–3 hours" number itself.

And repositioning isn't the only way to relieve pressure. A pressure-distributing mat and a donut-rolled towel do the same job. So reposition thoroughly during the day, and let the equipment do the work at night — that split is enough.

Caregiving runs for weeks and months. Getting up every 2 hours each night works for a few days, then stops being possible. If you collapse, the daytime repositioning stops too, and so do meals. Cutting back at night isn't cutting corners — it's how you keep the whole thing running.

If you're worried, check the skin over bony spots each morning for redness. If nothing changes, the split is working. If there's redness or broken skin, don't treat it yourself — talk to your vet.

Two approaches worth trying:

• Use a memory-foam mat ▶ Memory-foam pressure-relief mat on Rakuten (9,790 yen)
• Place a towel rolled into a donut shape under bony, pressure-bearing areas

※These are general suggestions. If the skin is already red or broken, don't treat it yourself — talk to a vet.

② Eating

The first thing to try is bowl height. Raising it onto a 10–15cm stand can sometimes reduce spilled food. That said, this may not apply for large dogs (there are reports looking at a possible link with stomach torsion). Read the large-dog page and check with your vet before applying this. Eating with the head lowered can be hard to swallow — often it's not that the food is unwanted, but that the posture itself is uncomfortable. Softening technique, switching foods, and narrowing down why a pet isn't eating are all covered on the when they stop eating page. Prescription diets after a diagnosis are also covered in the second half of that page.

③ Toileting

When accidents increase, you don't have to jump straight to diapers. If your dog just isn't making it to the toilet in time, widening the area of pee pads around the sleeping spot often helps first. Diapers become worth considering once accidents start happening while they're lying down.

The cost difference is large, too. A diaper runs about ¥57.6 each, a thick pee pad about ¥12.4 — roughly a 4.6x difference. Per month, that's around ¥1,100 with pads (3 a day) versus around ¥8,600 in diapers all day (5 a day).

Two things to watch when buying. Size diapers by waist measurement, not body weight (of the low-star reviews for diapers themselves, 10 out of 11 were sizing failures). And don't trust the "thick" label on pee pads (68.3% of 284 low-star reviews said a "thick" pad turned out thin).

How to tell which stage you're at, how to choose pads and diapers, and the monthly cost at each of the three stages are covered on thetoileting care page.

④ Water

If your pet's water intake is dropping, try these in order.

1. Raise the bowl to around head height (for dogs who find lowering their head uncomfortable, this alone can increase how much they drink)
2. Try room temperature to lukewarm water
3. Add a few drops of the water used to boil chicken breast, for scent

※If their water intake doesn't recover after trying these, or days go by without drinking, don't wait and see — go to a vet.

⑤ Labored breathing

If your pet still seems to be struggling even after lowering the room temperature, look at the breathing itself rather than the room. Counting takes three steps.

1. Pick a moment when they're asleep or resting quietly
2. Watch their belly rise and fall — one rise-and-fall counts as one breath
3. Count for 15 seconds and multiply by 4

If their resting breathing rate goes over 40 breaths a minute, that's a sign to be cautious. Don't get too hung up on the counting method or the exact number — if something seems off, see a vet without hesitating.

⑥ Legs and joints

Taking longer to stand up, avoiding steps — changes in a senior pet's legs and joints tend to come on gradually. The basics are avoiding slippery surfaces (mats or cork flooring) and reducing steps.

Some households use supplements with joint-support ingredients such as glucosamine and chondroitin. But supplements aren't medication, and they don't guarantee an effect. If your dog's gait looks different or they seem to be in pain, see a vet without hesitation.▶ Browse joint-support supplements for dogs on Rakuten

Regular heart checkups also become more important in the senior years. If you notice more coughing or your dog tiring more easily, see a vet first. From there, on the nutrition side, some households add supplements containing things like coenzyme Q10.See Mainichi Kenshin, a heart-support supplement for dogs

⑦ Overnight monitoring and your own rest

Carrying overnight monitoring alone can wear you out before it wears out your pet. Create time when family or others nearby can take turns, and lean on convenience products like a monitoring camera to help you rest. Just being able to check in from another room or your phone makes a real difference to how tense the nights feel.See the Furbo dog camera

On the nights you feel like you're not doing enough, you've probably gone to check on them again and again. They likely hear those footsteps. Perfect care matters less than you not collapsing.

⑧ Dementia and night crying

The share of dogs showing behavior changes rises with age — one study found some change in 28% of dogs at 11–12 years old, and 68% at 15–16. Night crying and day-night reversal are among those changes.

The core response: more exercise during the day, less stimulation from the evening onward. Shift walks to the morning or midday so they're tired by evening, then keep TV volume and lighting calm after dark.

One caution. If you search for "night-crying products for senior dogs," what comes up are ultrasonic training devices built to stop young dogs from barking. Night crying that comes from cognitive change isn't a training problem. Before buying anything, revisit daytime exercise and the evening environment — and if nothing changes, see a vet.

The DISHA(A) six-point checklist and the full approach are covered on thedementia and night crying care page.

⑨ Mouth care

You'll often see the claim that "80% of dogs over 3 have periodontal disease" — but tracing the cited papers, the figure isn't there. A measurement based on clinical records puts it at 12.52% (2021). Under anesthesia, though, detailed exams push the number several times higher — in practice, you don't know until it's examined.

What you can do at home is brushing. Plaque forms on teeth within about a day and hardens into tartar in about three, which is why daily to every-other-day is the target. Research bears this out: daily or alternate-day brushing showed a clear advantage over once a week for plaque, tartar, and gum inflammation. Even once a week still helps hold back tartar.

The full story behind the figure, how to keep brushing going, and why anesthesia-free scaling isn't recommended are covered on themouth care page.

⑩ Home setup

Slippery floors are the first thing to revisit for reducing stress on knees and hips. You don't need to cover every room with mats or cork — just the paths your dog actually uses brings the load down.

Before laying anything, check the fur on the paw pads and the nails. Paw pads are the dog's built-in anti-slip surface, so if overgrown fur keeps the pads off the floor, adding mats won't do much. If you hear nails clicking as they walk, that's the sign they're overdue.

Reducing steps (ramps instead of jumps off the sofa or bed), lighting for changing eyesight, and bowl height and water stations are covered on thehome setup page.

⑪ Walk support

Even when your dog can't walk far, walks don't have to stop. Fresh air, smells, and sounds are considered to help prevent dementia in senior dogs. As walking distance shrinks, carrying them or using a stroller keeps the outside time going. If they have a heart or joint condition, don't set the exercise level yourself — ask your vet first.

Fit a mobility-support harness by measuring waist and hind-leg circumference, not by the weight on the package — dogs of the same weight are shaped differently. Harnesses also come in front-leg and hind-leg versions, so buy for whichever legs are weakening.

Telling front-leg from hind-leg cases, wheelchair prices and build times, and how to choose a pet stroller are covered on thewalk support page.

Frequently asked questions