Healty coat & diet

Question
Hello
     I have a 9 year old lab, we just lost her mother last week because of cancer.  I would like to know what I can do to make her coat healthy, also what would be good exersise for her, the other lab loved to play with toys however this one does not, is there any way to get her to play ball, etc.  Also what food do you like for older dogs, I would like to get her energy level up, any help would be great. Thanks  

Answer
Hello David and thank you for your question,

I am sorry to hear you lost your older dog, Labradors are truely wonderful companions. 9 years old and still healthy? For older dogs be sure she is Senior food as it is lower in fat to pervent older less active dogs getting over weight. There are many types of senior dog foods avalible many good brands/cheap brands and soft vs hard foods as well. If you want to go top quality go for nutro, heres a link to one type of senior food they offer its the lower end of there product line but *not very low quaility at all; http://www.nutroproducts.com/maxdogsenior.asp

If you follow some links in there you will see a natural choice senior and ultra senior as well. all are gerats foods the later on is holistic thou some more expensive. As a plus the Natural choice or a high quaility food in genral will make her coat shiny and nice thou older dogs tend to loose some of the life in tehre coats. You can't really tell a dog toplay maybe her mother was more fit? all dogs are different even in the same breed mif both dogs were perfect weight and one was playful and the other not its normal but if this dog is inactive all the time i'd have a few tests done Just to be sure shes ok and not sick or in any sort of pain. Some say adding a tablespoon of wheat germ oil or cod liver oil to the daily food will make the coat shine... i've never tryed it so I couldnt be sure it would help but if you have the oil handy why not give it a try. If she doesn't like playing the only exercise for her is walking, my lab enjoys walking thou on hot days(shes a black lab) shes not to keen. A simple 10 or 15 minute walk everyday will keep her fit and will pervent musle stiffness from sitting all day long. Other quaility foods are Authority sold only at petsmart stores, Neutreance, Technical, Sience diet(I don't care for sience diet) and lower end foods would be purina one, purain dog chow, peddigree... i wouldnt go lower quaility on my dogs then the last three. Iams and Eukanuba I'm sure you noticed I forgot but they run a test facility on live animals in the states and its just so crule I absoulutly hate iams  at : www.iamscruelty.com you can find info, pictures/videos and other things which would make you hate the food also(eukanuba has the little iams sticker on teh back of every bag or box.


I sure hope this answers your questinons if you need anymore info at all feel free to ask I'd be more the happy to help and would get back to you with 2 days,