Has anyone ever dealt with dementia in elderly dogs?

[miss_thenorth]

My WPG is just over 10 years old, and she has been showing signs of dementia for some time now. About 4 years.

Up until now, it wasn't bad. Every now and then, she woul dbe scared of something in the yard, and on occasion, she would be scared of us.

Well, lately, it's gotten so much worse. She will have bouts several times a day. She wanders around in circles, acts like she doesn't know us, and very fearful. last week, she was afraid of her food. Hubby had to coax her to eat, but he had to feed her outside, as she wouldn't go near her food bowl in the garage. Yesteday, I went outside, and she was fine. About two hours later, she ran away from me. She did with hubby too. then, a few hours later, she was fine again.

has anyone dealt with this? I'm distraught. With everything else that is going horribly wrong in my life right now, my dog is suffering. If anyone has any advice, please share. She will be going to the vet soon for her yearly, and I have read up onlline, but it doesn't sound very promising.

 

[freemotion]

Are you sure her vision and hearing are ok? But it does sound like dementia....

 

[ksalvagno]

We have an older dog that is now deaf and her eye sight isn't as good as it used to be. But she is not afraid of us and no problems eating. It definitely sounds like some dementia going on there but I wouldn't be surprised if hearing and sight loss are playing a roll in it too.

It sounds like you have some tough decisions to make about your dog. I just went through that and can sympathize. While we want to keep our dogs around, we also have to consider health and quality of life for them. No easy decisions about it.

Good luck with what you decide to do.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Her sight is fine--she is still out catching rabbits. hearing is good too, although sometimes when you call her, she looks at you with a blank stare.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

 

[TheMartianChick]

We had a dog with a bit of dementia. Although we didn't use it, there is a doggie version of Aricept. Our dog had a dog run and he got out once and was really scared. A neighbor brought him back home and closed him in our fence. He just snoozed in the sun until we got home. The funny thing is that under ordinary circumstances, our dog would have probably bitten our neighbor!

 

[MorelCabin]

Coconut oil maybe?

 

[hoosier]

We had a dog that went from being a very good watchdog and protective of me, to being afraid of me. He also would try to eat anything - gravel, tin cans,... He was like that all the time though; he didn't have any lucid moments. I decided that his quality of life must not be good even though he was not in physical pain. I made the difficult dicision and had him pts. I am so sorry you are experiencing this.

 

[Beekissed]

Could he have a brain tumor? I've never heard of this kind of behavior in dogs and it certainly sounds like some kind of dementia but maybe vascular or pressure-related?

I too am dealing with the looming prospect of putting an old and dear friend down in the interest of putting her out of obvious misery. Right now we are giving her Motrin to ease some of her joint and tooth pain and her eyesight is failing, but are not sure how long we should do this before we realize, are we doing it for her or for us?

We are trying to make it through the summer but we know without a doubt it would be cruel to make her suffer through cold weather again. Plain and simple, I owe her the hand of mercy.

 

[murphysranch]

awwww....poor thing....she sound miserable, both within her mind and during her good moments.