I have a female Patterdale terrier. She's 12 and suffers with chronic spinal pain after an injury and surgery when she was 4. She's on a pain management program - gabapentin, amitriptyline, prednisone and Pardale-V.
In the last few months she's had repeated episodes where she's increasingly restless at night, seemingly unable to lie down and sleep comfortably (although she'll cheerfully sleep anywhere in the house all day). Sometimes she's distressed to the point of panting.
She's been fine all day today, she's been for her two short walks, eaten normally, even played with a toy for a while and was laying with me on the sofa until we came up to bed.
She typically has a final wee and a bedtime biscuit, stays downstairs in her own bed for most of the night, tending to come up and ask to come under the covers with us when the room temperature drops in the early hours.
But recently, once we're in bed she's up and down, up and down, walking into all the rooms in the house and scratching, laying down but then leaping up with a growl again and moving to another room. While I've been typing this post she's jumped up on the bed, tried to lay down but snarled/barked and jumped up again, four times. She's been scratching in another favourite spot and has just come back in here again, panting and staring at me.
I'm sure it's pain, but don't really understand why she's fine during the day but not at night. She's on as much pain relief as they can give her long term, on top of the steroids. She's shaking badly but that's normal for her, there's some nerve damage from her spinal injury.
Could it be dementia? She doesn't stare into corners or anything odd, she's just extremely restless and distressed at pretty much the same time every night. This will either continue through the night until we get up again, or she'll eventually exhaust herself and curl up somewhere to sleep. My poor girl, I don't know what to do for her - there's no lore pain relief options. 