Great idea! I bought a faux wrought iron gate set at HD because I was sick of the baby gate. I wanted to be able to access the room if someone came to the front door (we also seldom use the LR) easily. I had to improvise their fit, but we like it. I'm trying to figure out a solution to another doorway-it's too wide for the gates. I have an extra long baby gate there, but it's a real pain since it blocks off access to the guest room if it's swung open. I love your idea, but our dogs can hop over something I can step over.

I'm late to this discussion and I don't post too often, but what you described in your original post is how I was feeling for the longest time. From what you said, I'd say the nurse was very likely right. I had my first hip replaced on 2009 (at 54) and the other one this year (6 months ago). Here's what I was experiencing - does any of it sound familiar to you? * Pain in my thighs, especially towards the end of the day. The muscles were so sore and I could feel them twitching. * Sleeping was difficult, since I could not find a comfortable position. I even bought a new mattress, since I thought that was the problem. * There was occasional pain in my groin, best described as a knife twisted in there. :( * I lurched when I walked, and for someone who used to gracefully manage modern gymnastics, that was embarrassing. I had a physio consult and the physiotherapist told me what is so very logical, but what had not occurred to me, that a lot of the pain was due to muscles tired of trying to hold my body in a position where the pain was less. I've linked to the booklet I was given. There are some good exercises in there to do. And as for aches and pains in general. Yup, I have them. The worst is the arthritis in the base of my thumbs. Really aggravating! Rub A535 and Ben Gay are my best friends. :) Here is a link that might be useful: Exercises are on pages 7-12

I have a to be 12 yr. old female lab. Her hips are bone on bone. Can hear the grinding when she does steps. It freaked me out so that I took her to the vet and we asked if it was bones breaking something like small fractures. No vet says it is from the loss of all the silicone-like substance that normally surrounds the hips. For our gal the vet says to let her get stiff would be the worst for her. We take her for a short walks every day. On the days I work from the house I take her out every couple of hours and walk around the yard. My DD walks her down to the mail box after school. She's hanging in. As for the supplement thing? Didn't do anything for our gal and it was super expensive. We are already doing Deramax for her and the vet says the other stuff was really a waste of time for us. It breaks my heart when I follow her up a set of stairs (would never let her do it alone), but she is my shadow. If I let her she would follow me up and down 20 times a day. We have limited to once up after the last out and one down in the a.m. (of course if there is a middle of the night need we take her out). I literally have to close my bedroom door to make her stay upstairs once she's up. If I run down for something she'd be right behind me. Too funny and yet so sad.

For all my old pets I give subcutaneous fluids at least once a week. Most of my older dogs and cats have had some degree of kidney insufficiency in their later years and hydration alleviates the nausea associated with it and perks up their appetites. I believe this has extended most of their lives, but more importantly it keeps them comfortable. Probably of all the things I've done to help my senior pets, this has made the most improvement to their lives. My older cats enjoy(ed) their heating pad covered with a towel. In or near their 20s, they have all lost weight and it was/is harder for them to generate enough of their own body heat to stay warm. I have a 4 foot wide gradually sloping ramp that I built so that my old dogs do not have to climb stairs to get in and out of the back door into the yard. I covered it in that fake grass indoor/outdoor carpetting so that it is not slippery. It is tough stuff and I can scrape snow and ice off it without harming it. For my collie in the last months of his life (He had an inoperable tumor in his abdomen that I believe caused him to be incontinent) I wrapped his beds with plastic tarps and covered that with washable and comfy fleece blankets. (His beds were 2" thick blocks of dense upholstery foam that I had made for him when his arthritis made it too hard for him to get up on the couch.) When he slept urine would just run out of him, so I could just change his blanket and sponge off the waterproof tarp-covered bed with soap and water. I had about half a dozen blankets that I would just throw in the washer everyday. It was a system that was easy for me and comfortable sleeping for him. Likewise my last two cats in their 20s were "leaky" when they slept. I lined all of their beds with plastic waterproof tablecloths, cut to fit. Then I covered that with soft cloths made from old towels and old clothes that were disposable. I affixed the disposable bedding to their beds with masking tape that I could tear off the next day. I had boxes of discarded fabric items cut into cat-bed-sized linens. When the supply began to run low I bought a box of hospital pads and used those. When my dogs were very old their appetites waned. I home cook for all my pets, and I cooked only those foods that they liked the best in their last days, because it was most important for them to eat to keep up their strength and to get adequate nutrition. Poultry was a favorite, and I cooked many a 25 lb turkey back then. Toward the end it was too hard for my guys to stand to eat a meal, so I hand fed them so they could eat lying down. For my dogs, glucosamine/chondroitin and fish oil capsules have helped their arthritis noticably. Eventually old age gets the upper hand, but these remedies stave off the crippling effects of arthritis for some time. I hope some of these suggestions will help you with your older pets. I find it very rewarding to care for my pets in their later years. There are so many ways to make their lives more comfortable, and to provide them with contentment. They appreciate the extra care and enjoy this phase in their lives, even though their world and activities have shrunk from what they once were. And now that I, too, am old I can empathize even more with the difficulties they have, and instinctively take steps to alleviate them.