My lovely dog is 13 years old. We celebrated 10 years together last month, after I fostered then adopted her at 3 years old. Recently she's been steadily declining.
She has started being incontinent (urine) over the last few weeks. She will pee in the house despite regular access to outside. I did consider this is potentially behavioural however she also pees in her sleep so maybe not.
This week she has struggled with diarrhoea, it's been really bad and there have been many accidents in the house. We are taking her to the vet tomorrow regarding this. I believe this has happened because she was in kennels for 3 nights at the weekend. She sometimes gets a dodgy tummy but never this bad and this long.
She's arthritic in her back legs, struggles to jump up, get upstairs sometimes and probably has arthritis in her front legs too.
We believe she also has dementia. We often find her staring at walls, stuck in corners etc. This has become quite noticeable over the past couple of months.
She eats and drinks well. She can still have fun playing with a toy occasionally. She loves visitors coming over and has no problem barking at the postman still. But she is generally quite tired and mopey looking.
Our home environment has changed with the arrival of our first baby 4 months ago and the guilt I hold is strong. I feel sorry that everything has changed for her and she's had to adapt so much.
Last vet visit a couple weeks ago, they mentioned the E word when discussing the dementia. But we didnt talk much else about it.
When will I know? 😔