Geri-Form Senior Care Clinic Trial
The Value of Senior Care

A Critical Medical and Financial Practice Segment Embraced by Successful Veterinary Practices
in the 21st Century

A 1997 AVMA study reported 28.1% of dogs and 25.4% of cats in the United States are 8 years of age or older.  A more recent study reported the senior population is 20.5 million dogs and 19 million cats. Therefore, senior pets can represent approximately 25-35% of active patients and this number will continue to grow as technology progresses.

Defining a senior pet is somewhat arbitrary since genetics, nutritional and environmental factors as well as disease and illness, influence health and vary between animals.   Body weight is one of the most common factors in determining when the animal enters its senior phase followed by the geriatric phase.  Generally, the smaller breeds are considered senior at age 9 and geriatric at 14 years while 20-50 pound animals are senior at 9 but enter the geriatric phase sooner at age 12.  The larger breeds, approximately 90 pounds and above, enter their senior phase at 6 and are geriatric at age 10.  In any case, today the average life span of 12 years for dogs has increased dramatically from years past.

Our mission is to assure that senior pets live these additional years in good health.  Nutrition plays a vital role in maintaining good health; and despite the utilization of quality foods and expensive medical diets, senior pets require higher levels of certain nutrients to attain their full benefits. An economical way to provide these nutrients is with quality vitamins such as Geri-Form, easily dosed by body weight and readily accepted by pets.

Geri-Form Economics: 

The daily cost of Geri-Form is small, just pennies per day for animals requiring either 2 tablets/day or 1 tablet/day. Geri-Form is an economical way to provide higher levels of nutrients, vitamins, minerals and fatty acids for senior pets. 

With administration of Geri-Form, results of a 988 Dog Owner Survey showed varying degrees of improvement in problems associated with aging; such as lethargy, poor hair coat, alertness, depression, incontinence, appetite, balance and posture.  Typically changes in appearance and behavior are usually not observed until the third or fourth week.

Dog Owners Report Geri-Form is Palatable and Effective

Veterinarians across the country were asked to evaluate Geri-Form in their practice.  Each clinic that participated was asked to place 12 dogs with geriatric problems on Geri-Form.  The dog owners were requested to return a Clinical Evaluation Form which outlined the animal’s response.  Many of the dogs did not have a specific disease, but were showing common signs of aging.

46% of the dogs were female and 54% were male.  The average age of the dogs was 11.73 years old.

Palatability:  (There were 978 responses to this section)

Readily or eagerly ate the tablet	62%
Ate the tablet with food	26%
Ate when placed in the mouth	6%
Total	94%

Muscle Weakness and Stiffness:

Dogs were placed on Geri-Form for a variety of reasons.  Two of the most common problems mentioned by pet owners when describing the aged pet are muscle weakness or stiffness.  These were the two largest categories for which Geri-Form was prescribed with the following results reported in 821 dogs.

314 owners reported improved balance…. 38%
168 owners reported improved posture …. 21%
214 owners reported improved alertness... 26%

Some improvement was reported in 85% of the cases.

Overall Results:

For all dogs involved in the study, the following improvements were seen regardless of the reasons they were initially put on Geri-Form.
Note: some dogs showed improvement in more than one area.

Summary:

This was not intended to be a scientific study, but it did gather useful clinical information about the use of Geri-Form in older animals.  The results reported are subjective observations by pet owners which reinforce what we have heard over the years from practitioners who have dispensed Geri-Form for their aging patients.

Geriatric care is a fast growing area of interest in the veterinary profession and we believe that individual animal nutritional supplementation which Geri-Form provides will play an important part in caring for the geriatric patient.  Geri-Form is palatable and contains fatty acids, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients vital for cell function and structure.

Changes in animal behavior and appearance were usually not observed until the third week of Geri-Form administration.

Several veterinary clinics reported that Geri-Form offered a practical dispensing solution to pet owners who complained about their animal exhibiting signs of old age, but without a specific disease.  Many clients reported that their animal experienced an improvement in its “quality of life.”  In some cases individual improvement was very dramatic. 

Give Geri-Form a try.  Ask your veterinarian to prescribe Geri-Form for your older dog, then download the Clinical Evaluation Form and let us know how it worked on your pet.

Conduct Your Own In-Clinic Trial

Click on the links below to learn how to get Free Geri-Form
for conducting your own In-Clinic Trial.

Trial Guidelines

Geri-Form Clinic Enrollment Form

Geri-Form Client Evaluation Form