Mabel Wanders Halls and Won't Sleep at Night - Help!
Submitted by duffydawg on July 11, 2015 - 8:31amMabel is almost 11 years old. Her buddy Duffy passed April 25th. Last year we moved into a new home. She is up well into the morning getting up off our bed and walking the halls aimlessly. We took her to Vet - nothing wrong with bloodwork or chest X-rays. We gave her 10mg of Diaspham (Valium) - it doesn't knock her out.
Has anyone had this happen before? We aren't getting any sleep....ugh!!
Canine dimentia
Our JRT cross had it. He paced constantly. Vet did give him a medication, can't remember the name. It helped a little but did not solve the problem.
Old age sucks, regardless of species.
Lynn King CPDT-KA
Oh Gosh
That could be it. She is 11 years old. She bumps into walls too. So maybe with some blindness and some dimentia - day turns into night and night turns into day?
It's really sad to watch
Jack would get lost in the house, behind doors, in corners. It was awful to watch him. And of course, he paced endlessly. He was also crated trained, but when he developed dementia, he would scream when confined.
So, to keep him from hurting himself, I slept on the sofa with an x-pen around it to keep him with me. He seemed to be O.K. with that.
Some of the meds the vet gave us actually made him worse. With a bit of trial and error, we did find one that helped but it was minimal.
Good luck with Mabel. If she does have dementia, you will have to watch her very closely to keep her safe.
Lynn King CPDT-KA
Follow-up re Jack
How long did Jack have dementia? We just worked her out a bit so we hope she sleeps through the night. Last night she came over and snuggled with me and looked into my eyes and it was the most helpless look. I just held her.
Anything really help?
I think from the time he was diagnosed
to when we said good-bye was probably about a year.
Good luck and be patient with her.
Lynn King CPDT-KA
Oliver is 11 1/2 now and...
he often sits and stares at a wall. He sleeps so deeply he doesn't even wake up when I come home. It's sad to just see them fading.