Dementia or are we missing something? Elderly lurcher pestering, muzzle-punching, hard to settle

[crispinglovershighkick]

Our sweet elderly lurcher pesters for food and attention. He's losing his hearing and vision but is cheerful and loves people. He used to have a lot of downtime between meals and exercise but now he can't seem to settle. He follows me around woofing and muzzle punching my legs. He has yet another follow up with the vet and I want to make sure we're not missing anything.

A behaviourist recommended a few things and we've tried everything:
Filled Kong, antler
Adaptil and Pet Remedy
Chamomile, oats, Placid supplement in food
Scent games
Essential oils
Scented shirt, thundershirt, jumper

Nothing has helped. Vet suggested we try Metacam in case stiff joints were making it hard to settle. He was taking fluoxetine but reacted badly to it (stiffness, confusion, accidents) so we were never able to get to the full dose.

Because he's recently had a few accidents (this is a brand new issue) I thought it was worth testing him for a UTI.

He loves scent games but as soon as it's finished he goes back to pestering. I've tried spreading out his meals which may have done more harm than good as he seems to want to eat all day now. I want to keep his weight down to protect his joints.

Grateful for thoughts or suggestions.

If dementia, there's a drug called selgian you can try. My dog had CCD, and was on 10mg per day, plus gabapentin.

Also consider cushings disease, as can present very similarly to CCD.

Problems with his teeth? (Pain.) I'm no expert though.

He may be following you around more and not settling precisely because he is losing his sight and hearing. Being in close contact with you, and being able to smell you if his other senses are diminishing, maybe reassuring for him if things are becoming more and more difficult for them with his sight and hearing loss. Pain somewhere is the other obvious one, metacam may not be enough. Dementia is often a go to these days when actually pain is at the root of the problem. I’d be asking for more investigation into both the hearing/sight loss and maybe specific areas of pain.

Yes, that's definitely an element of following me if I'm moving around the house but he often won't even settle with me. If I sit on the sofa and he sits next to me, he'll roll all over me then leap off the sofa and run around barking. It often seems playful, like a chase me game, but then he winds himself up and gets frustrated, or that's what it looks like to me.

Teeth seem fine and he does love his food but I'll ask the vet to check.

Thank you, will look into that.

Judas yes that's what I'm worried about, that he's in pain. The Metacam is just a stepping stone, we wanted to see if there was any improvement before committing to a monthly injection (name of script escapes me).

Thanks for the replies, I like going prepared, otherwise I feel like we're potentially ignoring whatever he's trying to say and putting it down to dementia.

I would want to eliminate pain.

There are many painkillers to try apart from metacam and just because metacam has not helped pain can not be ruled out.

Also it may need a build up to show any difference

The monthly injection is probably librela? So I guess you vet is thinking arthritic pain

You can try others before that to see if there is an improvement in the pain.

Might be dementia but I would want to try other pain meds first

Cartrophen? As pp said there are many pain meds, and in elderly dogs with arthritis there can be a combination taken to control symptoms. Might be a bit of trial and error involved to see what works. We’ve also tried both hydrotherapy and acupuncture (I was sceptical but it really did help, and our dogs enjoyed it too).

Should the Metacam has actually helped his joint stiffness - he's more playful and bouncy - but barking hasn't changed.

The vet said thinks it's osteoarthritis. He's been examined a number of times, I can't remember if bloods were done. We saw a behaviorist. He's seeing an ophthalmologist for his eyes, that's congenital and we knew about it when we adopted him.

Thanks again for the helpful replies. Will press the vet about possible pain and look into hydrotherapy and acupuncture as well.