My sweet girl has doggie dementia 😭
I am just feeling so sad. My girl is 12 and a half and has started showing signs of canine cognitive dysfunction and it has been progressing. My ex-husband found her abandoned in a parking lot when she was probably only 4 or 5 weeks old. We had to bottle feed her when we first got her, she was so little. Now my husband is long gone but my sweet girl is still here by my side.
She started showing signs a few months ago. She started by getting really nervous at night time, panting and pacing and wanting to be right by my side. I made the mistake of letting her get in the bed with me one night and she jumped down and hurt her leg. When I took her to the vet they said she has really bad spinal arthritis and that is what is causing her issues with her back leg. They said she is too old to really do anything other than treat her for pain. So she is taking carprofen and gabapentin. The gabapentin helps her sleep, so that had helped with the dementia type symptoms. But she still has episodes where she gets really nervous, so on those nights I just have to put my daughter's twin mattress in the living room floor and sleep beside her. But I can tell its progressing faster than I had anticipated because the past few days when I go to feed her she just stares at me and I have to physically walk her over to her food bowl.
I am just so sad because I know it will be time to say goodbye sooner rather than later. And I hate having to make these kind of decisions because she still has moment's where she is like her old self. She still gets excited to see me and she still carries her toy parrot around wanting to play. I am so glad I was able to give her a good life but seeing her get feeble and old is just heartbreaking.