A Question On Dementia In Your Older Pets

[Trisven13]

I have a lovely old JRT who is 13 1/2 and is starting to show more consistent signs of dementia. Most days he is good and potters around without a problem BUT once or twice a week he seems to have a panic that can last from 20 minutes through to 90 minutes where he moans, paces and appears to generally be quite stressed (similar to his behaviour during a storm). He has also begun barking at around 3-4am for about half an hour - doesn't need to go to the toilet, just again seems to be unaware or uncomfortable with where he is. He is totally blind (having suffered corneal dystrophy his whole life), is quite deaf and has a heart murmer BUT otherwise is very fit and healthy but I can't ignore the fact that he is more and more often appearing to be quite distressed. How have others dealt with it? I know some people whose old dog has carried on like that for years progressively becoming more and more unsure and stressed and that seems to me to be terribly cruel - whatever is happening in his mind it is upsetting him.

[Dogsfevr]

We have always followed the belief that there is a time where the bad outweighs the good & that it is kinder to PTS .

Obviously this is different for each person

[Sandra777]

We have always followed the belief that there is a time where the bad outweighs the good & that it is kinder to PTS .

Obviously this is different for each person

x2

You know your own dog best, you know when it's time to give them their wings.

Hard decision when they have good days intermingled with the bad ones. (((Hugs)))

[Diva]

Such a personal decision, but I think frequent signs of distress would push me over the edge.

[persephone]

yep .. you know him .... stop & think if he generally gets a good deal of enjoyment out of his days - or does the time of confusion/distress outweigh it ...

[Rebanne]

Such a personal decision, but I think frequent signs of distress would push me over the edge.

yes, me too.

[Trisven13]

The night time barking is only new this week but its horrible. The other stuff is normally "only" a couple of times a week.

[persephone]

Old Gert - now around 14 was always Mum's dog, and inside after Mum died, as usual ..... last year , as she kept toileting inside, and would also bark half the night at nothing we could find ..plus get very distressed ... I tied her up on the porch to sleep ..with a bed ..and there was never any more noise .. the odd wee during the night ..and she is calm .

[Guest Ams]

With what you have outlined it would be time for me to give him his wings if he were mine. I always say a day too early rather than a day too late and I do know how hard that is to live it as I recently had to make the decision for my 4yr old peibe. **hugz**

**edit cause I made a spelling nazi mistake on to/too**

Edited September 24, 2013 by Ams

[mita]

I always say a day to early rather than a day too late

Yes. One of the best & kindest vets I've known, said about his own dogs... That he'd never regretted putting one to sleep too soon. But he'd suffered agonies from putting one to sleep too late. And he meant even just a day or two.

My rule of thumb is not to wait until the pet 'has to be put out of its misery'. But to pick the time before the slide into 'misery'.

It's so, so hard, tho', even when you know this is the 'time'.

Edited September 24, 2013 by mita

[persephone]

My rule of thumb is not to wait until the pet 'has to be put out of its misery'. But to pick the time before the slide into 'misery'.

yes. It also makes memories nicer ones to dig out every so often ....

[Ranger00]

I agree with the sentiment of a day too early than a day too late, but I'm going to go against the grain and say I have torn myself apart since April last year agonising over whether I tried hard enough to help my girl, or if I should have taken her to another vet, or asked for the MRI even though the vets told me it wouldn't change the outcome (suspected brain/brain stem tumour), or given the cortisone longer to work, and so on.

If you know for 100% certain what's wrong with your dog, and that they are in pain, then okay perhaps the posts above are what you should go by, but is it definitely dementia, have other causes been ruled out, etc... I certainly don't want to make you question yourself, if you are sure, but I had no concrete evidence and my girl became very ill very suddenly... I wish to this day I had gone ahead with the bloody MRI to be absolutely certain.

[Yonjuro]

There are medications available to treat dementia in dogs, and some do remarkably well on it - according to my vet. So if your dog is pretty okay apart from this then it might be worth tying this for a while. My 14 year old Schnauzer would get up at night and walk around aimlessly a lot during her final months, she had other age related ailments so we decided against trying these meds. We decided to put her to sleep in the end. Sometimes she would bounce around like a puppy, but often she couldn't get up to go to the toilet so we knew it was time.

So my only advice is to have a chat with your vet and see whether the dementia meds will offer a better life for a while.

My thoughts are with you in this difficult time.

[Trisven13]

The biggest difficulty we face is that, of course, he never does it at the vets and they see a seemingly perfectly healthy, albeit older, dog.

[Little Gifts]

Massive decision. I had to go through this with my almost 17 year old Stafford. Blind, deaf, full of cancer, limbs failing, incontinent, dealing with dementia, yet everyday she was right there in amongst the other two playing and keeping them in line, still thinking she was the Queen of the pack. We even got her a doggy pram so she could come on walks with us - no way was she missing out even with all her disabilities! It was a long time afterwards that I still wondered whether I made the right decision. I think she could've kicked on like that for another six months, but the reality was she was only going to get worse, never better, and it would've broken my heart had I gotten home and discovered she'd got trapped somewhere in the yard and been stuck somewhere for hours, getting herself all distressed. I feel like I saved her from her unpredictable self. She was physically active beyond her abilities and that increases the level of risk of harm happening. It was an awful day but she was a tough old girl and didn't want to go! Hugs to you Trisven. XXX

[Trisven13]

Yeah I think the fact that Mac is soooooo well in so many other ways - if you met him you'd probably not even notice immediately that he was blind and you'd NEVER pick him for 13 1/2 as he is still so active and agile. In some ways he looks like your typical Eveready Battery type dog where you think that they could go on and on and on but to see him stressing like he does when there is a storm is really hard for me. I'm sure his dementia is quite mild but it is so identical to his storm phobia and I know how terrified he is at those times that it doesn't take a lot of it for me to struggle to see him so distressed. We've always said that once he was having daily "panic attacks" then it would be time to go and the fact that the last 4 nights have had them does worry me some.

[Yonjuro]

The biggest difficulty we face is that, of course, he never does it at the vets and they see a seemingly perfectly healthy, albeit older, dog.

I don't think it is a problem that he doesn't display the symptoms at the vet. It would be totally normal for your dog to be more alert when visiting the vet, just explain the situation to your vet. Based on what you say, he seems like a good candidate for trying these meds.

[Rosetta]

Its an awful situation isn't it - so sad. Hopefully Westiemum will pop in to talk about medications she has used for her Mac. I would think the vet could provide something that may help and wouldn't actually have to see the behaviour if he is satisfied everything else is OK?

Best of luck in dealing with such a distressing time.

[yellowgirl]

We've had really good results with the Vivitonin for our senior Pom, Raffi. He's around 15 or 16 we think. He started the night wanderings and lots of aimless circling, he seemed confused a lot of the time and he was breaking my heart. Very glad to have tried the Vivitonin first as it's made a wonderful difference to him. I also took a video of him to show the vet - they NEVER display behaviours at the vet so I always take my camera to show the vet any footage.

[Trisven13]

That is a good idea Yellowgirl - will do that.