Anyone deal with Doggie Altzheimers (CCD)

[spartana]

I have a small older dog - she's rescued stray and is probably around 15 now- who seems to have developed Canine Cognitive Disorder of the Sundowners version. She's OK during the daytime but basically goes crazy at night. Very lost, crawls all over me all night long, cries and whines if crated, etc. The Vet gave me some pills to calm her and they work OK but looking for any suggestions to help. I haven't slept in days and am pretty much in zombieville now. Anyone experienced this?.

[JupiterGreen]

I have a small older dog - she's rescued stray and is probably around 15 now- who seems to have developed Canine Cognitive Disorder of the Sundowners version. She's OK during the daytime but basically goes crazy at night. Very lost, crawls all over me all night long, cries and whines if crated, etc. The Vet gave me some pills to calm her and they work OK but looking for any suggestions to help. I haven't slept in days and am pretty much in zombieville now. Anyone experienced this?.

Oh lordy yes. Some things to try:

-medication (sounds like you are doing this currently)
-have you tried the crate next to your bed? We used those soft velcro flaps that you can add to a wire crate to make it a soft crate.
-one of those bead pillows that you microwave (so it's warm) in dog's bed
-Bach rescue remedies
-music/soft talk
-night light
-a thunder coat
-earplugs (for you)

It's been a while, but if I think of anything else I'll add to this list. Basically, it's just so hard with the oldies. My heart goes out to you both!

[Dee]

No direct experience, but my spouse and I took care of our elderly dog last year as his mobility declined. The dog was also on meds 7x/day for the last four years of his life (mostly for epilepsy). Eventually, we did decide it was time to end it for him and had him euthanized. It was a really tough time. We spent September-October taking the dog out for walks in a wagon, and helping the dog stand up long enough outside to do his business. By November, we were afraid of the impending winter, and his mobility was bad enough that we ended it.

So posting to send warm vibes and virtual kisses to your dog. It can be a very intense, difficult period of life as an aging dog's health declines.

[Metalcat]

Yep, little psychopath is definitely having some doggy dementia. He can't be crated anymore at night. This came out of nowhere, he was great with crating for a decade, but then suddenly started thrashing and freaking out if he's crated at night. He'll actually hurt himself he goes so insane. During the day? No problem.

He's either going blind or forgetting who we are or both, because often if he hasn't seen one of us for over an hour, he freaks when he sees us and takes awhile to calm down and accept that we're not intruders.

We tried Gabapentin for awhile, but he is extremely hard to give pills to, and we can't use things like pill pockets because he has chronic pancreatitis and can't have any food that's tasty, just low-fat kibble. Even when I do get a pill in him, he just goes and secretly coughs it up under the sofa.

We just try to keep his life as low stress as possible, but we're monitoring, because he's started getting up in the middle of the night and "patrolling."

[Cassie]

I had a Maltese with dementia. She was born deaf and then started to lose her vision which made her anxious at night and then she got dementia. I had to stop crating her and she took Xanax every night about a hour before bedtime which made her sleep. She had to sleep with us and always had to be touching me.

 By 5pm she would get restless and try to tip the water and food bowls and just act crazy. She also had kidney disease and when this 5pm behavior became a regular occurrence I put her to sleep. She was a puppy mill breeder rescue and was estimated to be about 18 years old. We had her 10 years.

[SunnyDays]

My parent's little dog developed CCD at around 19 years of age, but no behavioural problems really, just would forget to pee outside and do it in the house sometimes and not know what to do with food.  She was put on Aricept, although I don't think it really did anything for her.  She took a lot of babying for about 6 months, then finally had a stroke and was put down.

If the pills the vet gave you are working, don't feel bad for giving them.  The dog needs some relief from the anxiety caused by confusion.

It's a hard time for both dog and owner. 

@Malcat, can't you grind up the pill and mix with water and syringe it into his mouth?

[Dave1442397]

We went through that with my sister-in-law's dog. He was staying with us for a few months while she was apartment hunting after a move from NV. He could never settle down, and spent most of the day wandering around the house whining...very sad to see.

She got cannabis oil for him, and it helped a lot. Still, there wasn't much to be done at that point. He declined rapidly over the course of three months or so, and  the vet said his quality of life was non-existent at that point, so that was that.

[Metalcat]

My parent's little dog developed CCD at around 19 years of age, but no behavioural problems really, just would forget to pee outside and do it in the house sometimes and not know what to do with food.  She was put on Aricept, although I don't think it really did anything for her.  She took a lot of babying for about 6 months, then finally had a stroke and was put down.

If the pills the vet gave you are working, don't feel bad for giving them.  The dog needs some relief from the anxiety caused by confusion.

It's a hard time for both dog and owner. 

@Malcat, can't you grind up the pill and mix with water and syringe it into his mouth?

I can, but I also have just found that the benefit isn't worth it at this point. Even having meds syringed makes him reactive. I'll try again when he gets worse.

FTR, he's a chill, happy little dude like 99% of the time, so his psycho shit is pretty manageable for now.

[Firehazard]

I have a dog that is 14 years old now, he's about the size of a beagle.  In January of 2021, he started showing symptoms like you describe....fine during the day, but very skittish at night, climbing all over me in bed, unable to settle and sleep.  He would sit sometimes on the bed or floor at night, just staring around him, like he was really spooked.  I took him to the vet, who said it was likely CCD and prescribed 50 mg of Trazadone per day, plus 1.5mg of Melatonin in the evening to help him sleep.  After about three days on this regimen, he seemed to return to normal.  After a couple of weeks, I tried taking him off the Melatonin, suspecting the Trazadone might work fine on its own, and all was still well.  He did great over the next year and a half, with just an occasional mildly nervous evening now and then.  A couple of months ago his symptoms reappeared,  which happened to coincide with my husband going out of town for a week.   It subsided after a couple of days and returned a couple weeks later when my husband again had to go out of town.  This made me suspect it might be more about separation anxiety than CCD. Looking back, his symptoms had first appeared in Jan 2021 when my husband was away on a ski trip.  Also, when we adopted him many years ago, we had another dog and three cats.  They all got along great and interacted all the time.  Over the past few years, all of them got old and passed away one by one,  with two of them leaving us in the latter half of 2020.  I have to wonder if he got concerned when my husband went away that his family was continuing to disappear (and he hates being alone).  Anyway, I wondered if the daily Trazadone was really necessary so I gradually reduced his dosage over the last several weeks until he was completely off of it.  It's been about a week now with no medication, and I haven't seen any CCD symptoms at all.   It is a progressive disease, so I would have expected his condition to have worsened over all this time, but he seems to be completely fine, so I'm a bit stumped.

Some things we do for him that I think might be helping are below.  But honestly, we've done most of these things for many years anyway.  The daily walks did get a lot more interesting and varied when I reduced my work hours to part time in 2019:

- Daily walks in a variety of locations on a harness and flexi-lead with lots of freedom to sniff and explore.  I firmly believe keeping him active and engaged in his world helps to keep him young (and slim and fit).  He has slowed down a bit in his old age, so this summer we got him a doggie stroller.  He walks for 30 minutes or so until he gets tired and then happily rests in the stroller for awhile, so his outings can be longer.

- Give him time to take a sunbath on the patio each day

- Give 500mg of krill oil daily (good for the brain)

- High quality home-made food

- We adopted a 3 year old dog in June of 2021.  She is playful and frisky but very gentle with our old boy; the two are very compatible and now he really never has to be alone when we go out.  Not to mention everything is more fun with a buddy and at 14 years old, he plays with her every day.  I can tell by his behavior when we come in the door now vs before that he is happy to see us but wasn't stressed at all while we were gone.

Hoping some of this might help you Spartana!

 

[Dee]

That is a good update. Hoping for more positive developments for you and the sweet dog, Spartana.

[iluvzbeach]

Spartana, lots of good advice above.  Just thought I'd chime in and say that a close relative has a dog who has suffered quite a bit with anxiety and a combo of liquid Gabapentin & Trazadone before bed has really helped.  Best wishes!

[Metalcat]

My little guy has *just* started getting up in the middle of the night and barking hysterically. Fun times.

[Firehazard]

I have a dog that is 14 years old now, he's about the size of a beagle.  In January of 2021, he started showing symptoms like you describe....fine during the day, but very skittish at night, climbing all over me in bed, unable to settle and sleep.  He would sit sometimes on the bed or floor at night, just staring around him, like he was really spooked.  I took him to the vet, who said it was likely CCD and prescribed 50 mg of Trazadone per day, plus 1.5mg of Melatonin in the evening to help him sleep.  After about three days on this regimen, he seemed to return to normal.  After a couple of weeks, I tried taking him off the Melatonin, suspecting the Trazadone might work fine on its own, and all was still well.  He did great over the next year and a half, with just an occasional mildly nervous evening now and then.  A couple of months ago his symptoms reappeared,  which happened to coincide with my husband going out of town for a week.   It subsided after a couple of days and returned a couple weeks later when my husband again had to go out of town.  This made me suspect it might be more about separation anxiety than CCD. Looking back, his symptoms had first appeared in Jan 2021 when my husband was away on a ski trip.  Also, when we adopted him many years ago, we had another dog and three cats.  They all got along great and interacted all the time.  Over the past few years, all of them got old and passed away one by one,  with two of them leaving us in the latter half of 2020.  I have to wonder if he got concerned when my husband went away that his family was continuing to disappear (and he hates being alone).  Anyway, I wondered if the daily Trazadone was really necessary so I gradually reduced his dosage over the last several weeks until he was completely off of it.  It's been about a week now with no medication, and I haven't seen any CCD symptoms at all.   It is a progressive disease, so I would have expected his condition to have worsened over all this time, but he seems to be completely fine, so I'm a bit stumped.

Some things we do for him that I think might be helping are below.  But honestly, we've done most of these things for many years anyway.  The daily walks did get a lot more interesting and varied when I reduced my work hours to part time in 2019:

- Daily walks in a variety of locations on a harness and flexi-lead with lots of freedom to sniff and explore.  I firmly believe keeping him active and engaged in his world helps to keep him young (and slim and fit).  He has slowed down a bit in his old age, so this summer we got him a doggie stroller.  He walks for 30 minutes or so until he gets tired and then happily rests in the stroller for awhile, so his outings can be longer.

- Give him time to take a sunbath on the patio each day

- Give 500mg of krill oil daily (good for the brain)

- High quality home-made food

- We adopted a 3 year old dog in June of 2021.  She is playful and frisky but very gentle with our old boy; the two are very compatible and now he really never has to be alone when we go out.  Not to mention everything is more fun with a buddy and at 14 years old, he plays with her every day.  I can tell by his behavior when we come in the door now vs before that he is happy to see us but wasn't stressed at all while we were gone.

Hoping some of this might help you Spartana!

 

Thought I might update this thread, just in case it helps someone.  My husband went away on Monday again.  By Wednesday the dog was showing all the CCD symptoms again.  Wednesday and Thursday nights were rough.  Husband got home early this evening and all is well again.  I've never heard of separation anxiety manifesting itself in this way, but it seems to be the case here.

[SunnyDays]

My condolences on the loss of your pupper.  I’m sure you’re missing her.  They leave such a void in the house.

[iris lily]

My dear little doggie passed away a bit ago. Ended up her CCD was probably caused by several small strokes.

I am sorry to hear of the passing of the little barker. Is this the dog who was your mom‘s dog?

[Dee]

Oh no. Always so sad to lose a loved one. My condolences.