Re: Article on dementia

[Pam]

Hello Christine,

I also really feel for you. I have described the situation with Hutch above. Sadly, we let him go a week ago. His dementia mainly exhibited itself at night with barking, but he was increasingly weak physically as well, though he ate well until the very end. The impetus for actually putting him to sleep was less anything he did, though the Thursday night before we put him down he didn’t sleep at all and barked all night, but rather that my girlfriend’s dog was severely injured in an attack by another dog and needs our full attention to get well.

We had Hutch put to sleep at home and he went very peacefully after eating a meal of baked ham with enthusiasm. He had just seemed more and more frustrated and weary over the past few weeks, and the dementia medicine had stopped working as far as his sleep patterns were concerned.

For your sake I hope your dog just goes to sleep on her own. You could try the Anipryl or its equivalent wherever you live, but it takes several weeks to have any effect. It did help for a few weeks with Hutch. If she has lost interest in food it probably won’t be very long now. Good luck and lots of strength!