I’m struggling to know what to do about our old boy with dementia.
He is 10.5, and a husky GSD cross. A big boy! We rescued him as a 6 month old puppy and he’s been with us for a decade.
Earlier this year we noticed some behaviour changes. Lots of things, limping, sleeping a lot in the day, on and off his food (when off he doesn’t eat for a few days), but the worst is what we now know as ‘sundowning’. Initially it was 2-3 times a month he’d wake during the night barking/crying for seemingly no reason. This has ramped up, we now have 3-4 nights per week where he is very disturbed at night. He seems genuinely afraid, it’s the best way I can describe it. He gets so confused during the night too, running constantly between two corners of the room. Initially us going to him comforted him, but this also no longer helps (DH has taken to sleeping on the sofa to be with him but this just no longer seems to help / reassure him).
Hes been to the vets - full bloods and urine sample done to check for anything underlying and that was all fine, and so we believe it to be dementia, and that he is having quite a rapid decline. At our most recent visit he’d lost 2kgs in 6 weeks. He also has arthritis in all of his legs. He licks at his leg joints constantly until they’re sore. He no longer enjoys his walks at all and we basically loop the block and go home.
We’ve tried a 2 week trial on anti anxiety meds and they’ve made no difference at all. He does take meds for the arthritis each day.
We are due to speak to the vet on Monday to see how the trail went. I just feel at a loss. She mentioned a sedative if this didn’t work but I hate the idea of sedating him every night. On the other side of things, I had breast cancer this year - I’m out of active treatment but have a lengthy recovery plan which involves good quality sleep! As such poor DH takes on the dog night waking but he is utterly exhausted by it. It has started to affect his work. We also have 5-year old twins who he doesn’t wake as often as he wakes us, but he does wake them approx once a week. The broken nights with him are having such an effect on us as a family and yet I feel dreadful even saying that. I know it isn’t his fault.
Has anyone been through this? I feel so sad and so torn. I’ve read so many things that say to PTS before they’re struggling more than 60% of the time but how do you even know that with dementia? Are there other treatments that would help?
Thank you to anyone who can offer advice. I want to do what’s right by him and by the family.