[Pam]

Christine, I am sorry I haven’t been on here and didn’t reply sooner. My condolences on the loss of little Tia! If she stopped eating and drinking she definitely didn’t want to go on. It is always a hard decision to make, but if it is clearly the right time, we at least aren’t plagued by doubts afterwards and that helps a bit. That has been my experience, at any rate. I fretted a lot before making the decision, but now I am certain it was the right one.

Marisa, how is Maggie doing, and are you getting more sleep? I hope so!

[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!

[Pam]

I am so glad to hear you’re sleeping through the night again, Marisa! Hutch continues to sleep better, though every night is a bit different and we have the occasional bad night still. The secret seems to be not letting him sleep all evening so he wakes up at 11 or 12 and can’t settle again for hours. It makes going out in the evening risky, but it is still an improvement!

[Pam]

So sorry to hear about the DM diagnosis and all the expensive x-rays! There are lots of websites out there with information about DM and suggestions on how to cope. Maybe you can get your dog one of those carts to keep her mobile if she is fit enough in the front legs. Hutch leans to one side, alas, so that wouldn’t work for him. Good luck!

[Pam]

Marisa, I am glad they caught the misdiagnosis before putting her on a course of useless antibiotics. What kind of spinal disease does she have? I found out long after the fact that Hutch probably has spondylosis (suspected since they didn’t actually do an x-ray). It must have been very painful when it started but now isn’t apparently. These tough little creatures don’t complain, alas! I hope the anti-inflammatories help your dog soon. It sounds like the infuser may be helping too. Perhaps I should try it on Hutch? Did you notice a difference right away, or did it take a few days?

[Pam]

I just wanted to report back that the selegiline (Anipryl) finally seems to be working. Hutch still doesn’t sleep through the night, which probably would have been too much to expect, but he is only up once or twice now and barks less. And when he barks, he seems to want/need something concrete, like to be taken outside or more water. Luckily I can sleep late if he has me up in the middle of the night, so I’m getting 6 or more hours a night now (rather than 4), which makes life more livable. I hope this will last for awhile!

How is your girl doing, Marisa?

[Pam]

Oh dear, I am so sorry to hear that, Marisa. Healing vibes are winging their way from Germany to Australia!

[Pam]

Marisa,

I will be curious to hear how you get on with the Adaptil diffuser.

[Pam]

Hi fellow sufferers! I tried giving my dog the valium a few times because I was desperate to get some sleep after almost 5 months of being up several times in the night, but in the event it didn’t really help after the first night so I stopped. The acupuncture also hasn’t helped with the sleeplessness. My dog has now been on Anipryl for 2 weeks and things are a tiny bit better. He stays up later barking, but then falls asleep until morning. Marisa, you might want to try this for your dog since she is still so active and otherwise healthy. It might keep the dementia from getting worse. I wish I had known about it sooner. I prefer natural remedies, but at this point (he turns 19 tomorrow) I am not worried about long-term health effects.

In case anyone is interested, I had a classical homeopathist (i.e., she only uses individual remedies, no mixtures, and you dissolve them in water and give just a bit from the extremely dilute third glass) come to see him yesterday and she prescribed Chamomilla C30 to be given once last night, and once again this morning if that doesn’t help. Then I have to wait a few days and see. It sounds counterintuitive but she really helped him before so I am trying again.

If the melatonin doesn’t work you might try Neurexan (manufactured by Heel), a homeopathic mixture available online and perhaps in pharmacies or natural food shops where you live. In a German study comparing it with valerian, it was found to be at least as effective, if not more so. You can give three tablets at intervals during the evening. And you can take them yourself, too, to help you sleep better while your dog is wandering! My dog wandered too before his stroke, but didn’t bark. At the time I found the wandering annoying, but now I look back on it fondly because at least it didn’t drive my neighbors crazy.

Sorry for writing another long tome!

[Pam]

I am so happy to have found this thread and to hear about all the other people struggling with their own sleeplessness as well as their dogs‘ dementia! I have a Welsh Terrier, Hutch, who will be 19 next month. He was creaky but doing relatively well until mid-October, when he had what we assume was a stroke. After that he was virtually paralyzed on his right side for about 4 weeks, then with physiotherapy, magnet therapy, acupuncture, homeopathics, chiropractic treatments and much patience he started being able to stand and walk again, if slowly and not very far. He still has ataxia to the right. For actual walks I take him in a dog buggy and then let him walk when he wants to. He has been eating and drinking well the entire time and generally lets me know when he needs to go out to relieve himself, even if we don’t always make it in time (I live in an apartment and have to carry him down 2 flights of stairs). He still sniffs when he is outside, and shows interest in his surroundings, although he is now blind in one eye and can’t hear very well. I feed him a home-cooked diet most of the time.

So much for the general background. Right after the stroke he started barking in the middle of the night, which he had never done before. It usually starts between 3 and 5 am. In the past week it has gotten much worse. Before that, if I took him out to pee and gave him something to eat he would fall asleep again. Now he just barks and barks, up to 4 hours. When he barks in the daytime it is always because he needs to go out immediately, and it stops when he gets what he wants. Since I hadn’t had a truly decent night’s sleep since October I spoke with my vet and we decided to try him on 1/2 a valium tablet for a couple of nights so I can get some sleep. I gave him one last night and he slept 6 hours straight (until 4 am). After that he started barking and eventually fell asleep around 7:30. As of today I am also giving him a homeopathic mixture of Cerebrum and Circulo plus some Bach flowers my vet mixed especially for him.

My vet whose specialty is chiropractic and physiotherapy but also does acupuncture and homeopathic medicine wanted me to ask you if you have any specific acupuncture tips for her (she doesn’t speak English, so I have to translate for her) to help with his sleeplessness in the night, and also what you think of Moxa for his situation. She has used it a few times before to boost his energy, but not yet for the sleep problem. We would greatly appreciate any insights you might have as a practitioner of TCM.

Thanks so much in advance. Naturally, I am also happy to hear what anybody else has to say about the sleep problem. Obviously I don’t want to give him valium permanently (whatever that means in a dog as old as he is), but I also need to catch up on a bit of sleep before I get sick myself. I am discussing with both my vets (the allopathic and the alternative) the possibility of putting Hutch on Anipryl (here in Germany it is sold as Selgian). He is on amliodipine for high blood pressure and I saw that combining it with Selgian might be a problem. Any thoughts?

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