Does anyone know anything about doggie dementia?

[Doggiedementia]

Just that really. My old boy has been diagnosed and out on tablets 2x a day.

He’s still in good enough form just gets a bit confused sometimes and does a lot of looking at walls 👀. He’s gone from being independent to needing to be beside me all the time and sleeping in my bed which he never did. And he’s having poo accidents (which I don’t mind cleaning up)

Does anyone know how likely the tablets are to make an improvement? I didn’t think to ask the vet

Thank you for sharing. He’s not unhappy just sometimes it’s like he’s not there.

It’s hard to explain. Sometimes he stands looking at a doorway as if he’s forgotten he can walk through it. He also sots on the stair tread and licks the painted solid bannister.

But some days he’s great and seems back to himself. Other days. Not so great.

He has a cough but that’s just an old dog cough I ask the vet about it every time and they check and they aren’t concerned.

I absolutely love the bones of him he’s my very best friend. Having said that, if he’s distressed or unhappy or in pain I won’t keep him longer just for me.

@Doggiedementia linking is a very normal self soothing behaviour in dogs but it can get a bit obsessive with cognitive decline.

Offering a lickimat smeared with cheap meat paste (I use the sandwich ones) or similar is effective at satiating that need to lick, in a positive way

I think there’s lick mats in the shed so I’ll get them out and try that (used when I had to go out and leave them when ddog2 was a pup but haven’t used them in ages. I might have chucked them😂)

My ridgeback was diagnosed with doggy dementia, he used to have absent moments where he forgot himself or where he was. He was wide awake on NYE 2019 and I touched him gently to get him to go out for a wee before bed and he turned on me leaving a huge bite on my finger as I didn't pull away quickly enough. The sad think was he had no idea what had happened afterwards and just looked confused and worried.

It was so out of character but after it happened I took him straight to the vet and the diagnosis explained so much of his other strange but harmless behaviour.

He also had some other quite serious health problems and i eventually made the sad decision to have him put to sleep as the out of character aggression in such a large dog was too dangerous to risk. It was heartbreaking 💔

@TigsytheTiger Bloody sad 😞.

Yes my parents dog had this.
I looked after her for 4 years too and loved her so much

She died a few weeks after her 13th birthday. They chose to put her down because her quality of life was not so good. She stared and barked at walls and just seemed lost and confused.
She would bark for her dinner but had forgotten she'd already been fed.
She also had cateracts on her eyes and was quite deaf and she ran Into walls at speed sometimea and snacked her head off the walls and hurt her jaw and teeth.
It was a shame because she did still have energy when she was awake and she always wagged her tail however, she did just sleep more and more and more.

This website is good for information on caring for a dog with Cognitive Decline.

My boy is almost 16 and started showing signs about a year and a half ago. He has some other things going on as well, but he’s happy comfortable and we work with the vet to monitor him carefully. Dh sleeps on the sofa near him six nights a week (big dog that can no longer do stairs) and I do it one night a week.

We keep him on a routine, which he seems to find comforting and there is someone with him 24/7, which helps, as he is very needy and doesn’t like to be alone at all any more.

One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is MCT oil. Some studies have shown they can help with dementia symptoms, it’s believed by providing ketones, which are a source of easily available energy for the brain. I looked into it, but decided against, as he’s already on a lot of medication, plus a few supplements (which the vet is fully aware of) and I didn’t want to complicate things further.

My boy’s CCD symptoms are relatively mild and he’s not on vet meds for it. We put him the Aktivait supplements at the earliest sign and that definitely seemed to help. If we were to move to veterinary medication I would want to try him on Selgian.

@PermanentlyDizzy Thanks for the link. How long did it take for you to see a difference and what was the difference on the aktivait?

My older dog has this- went from being totally bombproof to anxious about loud noises-thunderstorms-fireworks etc -started pulling to walk only one way-she sleeps now facing a wall or behind a door-in really odd positions.sometimes she can’t work out which way the door will open to go through. We have the odd night where I’m up because she’s barking as she thinks it’s breakfast time- she barks for food even though she’s been fed.It’s sad for us but in herself she’s mostly very happy, although clingier.we do tend to leave her at home more whereas before she could go anywhere in the car and be happy, she can get unsettled in new places.On holiday she won’t sleep but paces in the night the first night.
One tip though is maybe to feed usual amount but over 3/4 times a day if you find confusion around mealtimes.

I’m sorry- you sound like you are doing all the right things to me

Thank you everyone and thanks for sharing your stories.

I will do my absolute best for him I’m going to ask the vet for that other medication. He’s so good in many ways but then we get days where he is really vacant.

This is so hard.

I really feel for you
The one thing I berate myself for is carrying on for about a year too long with my old boy.
I kept thinking this is it and he'd rally and have a good few days and then relapse and we just kept going in that pattern.
The twice daily faecal incontinence for over a year was awful, especially as he'd been so clean before and he got so fussy with food he lost so much weight and got very thin.
The one thing I'd say is it doesn't mean you love them any less for making the horrible but kind decision to put your oldie to sleep if symptoms become unbearable for a long period of time and you feel like quality of life is going.
I was hoping for a miracle and you also don't realise how bad things can get until you look back with the benefit of hindsight

Well. He got up at 1.30 and I took him outside had he pooed outside (no I am not the poo troll lol). But he was up again just before 6 and out for a wee.

He just got his morning teeth cleaner (I know but it’s as natural as I can get and he’s always got it) and didn’t eat it. Left it in front of him not interested til Ddog2 swiped it from under his nose and he just sat there and let it be taken.

[quote userxx]@PermanentlyDizzy Thanks for the link. How long did it take for you to see a difference and what was the difference on the aktivait? [/quote]
@userxx I would say we first noticed a small improvement after about a month/6 weeks, then a gradual improvement from there. It’s not cheap either, so it can be hard to stick with it if you don’t see instant/obvious results.

We thought he’d gone deaf, as he wasn’t responding to ‘signals’ like the doorbell, the sound of his food bowl being filled or the back door opening. After a few weeks on Aktivait he started to come running excitedly at those cues again. Less standing, staring and looking confused and being more engaged with us, eg asking, instead of having to be reminded to go in the garden. Also things like remembering the signs that dh was making his afternoon apple and peanut butter snack and making sure he was there to snag his portion and he just seems more relaxed and happier in himself.

He’s been on it for roughly a year and a half now and is significantly better, more engaged and interested in what’s going on and his ‘senior moments’ where he would just stand, stare and not respond to us have significantly reduced.

Having said all that, he has also had his pain med regime adjusted and improved over the last few months and he has improved cognitively even more. So it’s definitely worth regular vet reviews, close monitoring and making sure they are as pain-free/comfortable as possible, as pain can mimic CCD. He sees the vet every 4 weeks and we keep a good day/bad day diary, with notes to discuss with the vet.

A diary is a really good idea. I’ll Do that too.

Another vote for Melacutin, I've had some luck with it for the ones who get restless at night.

We bought a magnetic whiteboard diary and red, green and orange pens from Amazon and keep it on the fridge. That way everyone in the family can note things of concern as they see them and it’s obvious if there’s anything new going on or if a symptom is becoming worse/ more frequent. The colours act as a traffic light system for symptom severity.

Before we did it we weren’t able to sensibly discuss if he was still having more good days than bad or if a med change had had an effect. As soon as we started doing it it was clear it was an incredibly useful tool in helping us both manage his health and objectively judge his quality of life.

I type it all into a diary at the end of each week and it’s used as part of his monthly vet monitoring.

That’s @PermanentlyDizzy I have a sticky whiteboard in my office I’ll move to the fridge. That is an excellent idea.

Our family dog had dementia. The vet explained it really well - apparently your dog has a "map" of their surroundings in their head - so if they go blind they can still navigate - but if they have dementia they lose the map. Our old lady would her herself suck head first in a corner and didn't know how to turn around or reverse out, for example. At first this was just occasionally but as the dementia worsened it became more and more frequent until we had to make the decision to pts as she had no quality of life - there were also incontinence issues and she became very agitated if anyone came to the house, even family members she knew well.

What can I do about the in the bed at night? Will the melatonin make a difference? I have another dog and both of them are in the bed which is obviously going to mean ddog2 is in the bed once he goes. Which isn’t ideal for me and sleep.

Also I’m on another thread about a dog off lead running up to another dog that is on lead. He’s always on lead now because he’s v reactive to other dogs. He has a bright yello harness that says he’s nervous and I walk him at 6am. Is there anything else anyone can think of? It’s so stressful when other dogs come up to him and it makes him look so nasty (which he’s not at all)

I think a dog with dementia and soiling everywhere , it's time to be kind and PTS. Would you want to live like that. Dementia is a cruel disease, he will be confused and possibly scared and to add to it poking himself .

His quality of life has gone I wouldn't keep a dog like this going

It's kinder to PTS before they actually need it most owners leave dogs too long for there own benefits as they don't want to lose them but it's not in the dogs best interests.

Pooing not poking

He’s not soiling everywhere though. He poos in the same place upstairs some nights and ive put plastic roll down on the carpet. He does not urinate inside at all.

Also. This is a new symptom that has come on in the last week, hence taking him to the vet.

I’m happy to try the medications and supplements suggested here first before I jump to having him PTS.

My lovely ddog2 had dementia. Before it she had always slept happily downstairs, in a crate but with the door open (her crate was her 'safe space') but as she became ill she started howling in the middle of the night and pacing. We think it's because she lost sense of what time it was and was panicking because we weren't there.
We moved the crate to the bedroom and began closing the door which helped, and on the odd night when she would start whining, one of us would talk to her and she'd calm down.
We also had ddog3 at that point and I think he was a lot of help because they did everything together so if he was there she was sort of reassure IYSWIM?

For the last year she would wee in the house and we did what you've done and put down the puppy training pad things. We also made sure she was put outside as late as possible (and left there until she'd had a wee) and set an alarm to have her outside for 5:30am (DH and I took turns).

She was almost completely deaf so would sleep a lot and become confused and a bit aggressive if she was woken suddenly - we took to stamping our way over to here so the vibrations in the floor woke her up, and she'd be fine then.

With food we split her usual 2 meals a day into 4 so she was being fed (the same food in the same place) every few hours.

As for walking, she was a rescue who had always been dog aggressive / reactive so we were used to that. I had no problem telling idiots people who let their dogs wander near us that they needs to be called in because my dog wasn't friendly and it was very rare that someone didn't call their dog back in straight away.
If this is the case, you need to be assertive, not sorry - you're warning people, the yellow lead etc is a warning and you're walking at a quiet time of day. There's nothing else you can do.

You know your dog OP. My post sounds like my dog became a lot of work and I'm sure to some people it doesn't seem worth it BUT I had 14 years of her being amazing and 18 months of her needing some extra help and care from me. She wasn't in pain and she was worth every clean up and every 2am howling wake up.

Please do consider medication.
It's sad for me to read about dogs with clear sign of anxiety and cognitive decline that aren't treated.

Of course medication won't help in all cases but it can make a big difference in many.

Also treating any underlying pain is important as this contributes to anxiety

I'm aware that many vets aren't great at managing aging dogs - but pain relief and anti anxiety meds can help enormously along with enrichment and changes in husbandry .

Good luck everyone!