Dementia in dogs

[bridgetreilly]

It has become clear that my rapidly aging dog, in addition to near-blindness, is also now struggling with dementia. I’m aware that this may mean the end is very near, but I would appreciate hearing from anyone with experience of this about how to help him feel as safe and happy as possible for now.

I'm interested to hear of any experiences because I think my 14 year old dog might be going the same way. She seems to get lost in the house and stands on the landing, or wherever, and barks until someone finds her. She's also quite deaf. It isn't really too much of a problem at the moment, she eats well and still enjoys walks and cuddles. The vet said it is not unusual at that age.

It is pretty common, I think, in older dogs. Mine does a lot of staring at walls, whining, forgetting where he is. Also occasional mixed up sleep habits and occasional incontinence. He is, thankfully, not anxious or scared, but he does seem to be confused a lot. I had been putting it down to his sight loss, but it’s definitely not just that.

I'm pretty sure our old dog was demented.
Staring at walls. Waking up to find her staring at me. Walking into things. Clearly confused.
In our case it was pretty short- lived because her health declined really rapidly and we made the hard decision to do the kind thing.
As long as your dog is coping and isn't distressed, just carry on loving and supporting him.
I think you will just know when it's time to do the kind thing.

My dog had dementia for a good year or so before we had to pts due to other health issues at 17. She started getting generally unsettled at night where she’d bark to go out, then 10 mins later repeated the process and sometimes it would go on for a couple of hours until she wore herself out wandering around. We changed her routine slightly to add an evening walk so she was tired at bedtime and I used the plug in calm in alongside a calming collar. I found it helped a bit, generally if she had an unsettled night, I’d realise the plug in had ran out, a order a new one and we’d get a run of better nights. Otherwise she was pretty happy so we just kept a familiar routine and gave her lots of love.

Thank you. That’s a good idea about the plug in.

I have had 2 dogs with dementia and you have my sympathy, it is very difficult to deal with.
My vet prescribed vivitonin and we used full spectrum cbd oil which seemed to help claim him for a time .
Dont let it go too far - I did with my first dog that had it and I have never forgiven myself.
Good luck

I think staring is quite common in this condition. Ours used to stare at his water bowls for ages.
All the time he wasn't a danger to himself it was fine, but the minute he started hurting himself by walking into things we knew we had to let him go.

Calm not claim.
to add with the first one it got to the stage we couldn’t comfort her - probably she didn’t recognise us -that was awful.
with the second the sundowners were distressing and he eventually would wake up at around 2am and need to be comforted- for about an hour - then he would go back to sleep ( which I rarely managed) occasionally in the middle of the night he would get lost in the garden ( which isn’t that big!!!!)

He does walk into things a lot, but doesn’t seem to hurt himself - he does move quite slowly! And for a while he has struggled to find his way in from the garden. It’s so hard. He doesn’t seem anxious or unhappy.

Do you think the walking into things is due to the blindness.
I agree it’s such a difficult thing to deal with. Having experienced it before our criteria with the 2nd dog was if we couldn’t comfort him then it was time . We loved him too much to let him be distressed. We did think the cbd oil helped - but unfortunately it’s like trying to prove a negative- there were times I felt i needed it more than him !!!
you clearly are doing your best - I can only wish you luck xx

Yes, I think it’s the blindness. But yesterday he started jumping onto things that weren’t there. That was very different and has the potential to hurt him badly.

I think routine really helps them. I lost my 16 yr old to dementia recently.
Also Akivait tablets really reduced her night time wandering so its worth trying meds to see if they help.