Re: Article on dementia

[Christine]

I’m so pleased to have come across this forum – such great information and a comfort to know there are others out there having the same challenges as we are.

We have a 15year Dachshund who has dementia and also has something else going on inside of her that the vet thinks is adding to her general state of ill-health. We have made the decision because of her age not to do any invasive tests or procedures believing that in the long run the treatment will be the same.

Our challenge is trying to figure out what we need to do to make her last days/weeks/months here as comfortable and as enjoyable as possible. Up to now she has been a typical Dachshund eating everything in sight and never refusing food but now her sense of smell seems to have left her and even the tastiest of cooked chicken takes a while for her to detect and eat but not with the usual gusto. She displays all the DM symptoms described by others and while she has never been a touchy/feeling dog she has even further distanced herself from us.

Being of the belief that all animals are sentient beings, as we are albeit of a different species, we really, really want to try and let her cross over on her own terms – we just don’t know where to draw the line in the sand.

Sorry for the long post but thanks for listening.