Has your dog got dementia?

A week may be a long time in politics but, if you’re an old dog, your life can unexpectedly change in that short period of time too. A week ago my almost 15-year-old golden retriever, Bean, had a number of age-related medical conditions. She was deaf, partly blind and, with weakened muscles in her hind limbs, needed help getting in and out of the car. But today, with Bean curled up comfortably in her too-small Cath Kidston dog bed under my desk, I have to accept that she now also shows signs of senility. If she were a person she would be diagnosed as having early Alzheimer’s.

In dogs, senility is a diagnosis of exclusion. There are medical reasons for a dog becoming disorientated or soiling in the house, or becoming less active or having sleep changes. But when a dog behaves in these ways and your vet has eliminated inflammations, cancers, endocrine disorders or pain, then she is diagnosed as having an age-related decline in her brain’s previous abilities, in her ‘cognition’. She has dementia.

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Bean’s new behavioural sign of senility is rolling in the park, then getting up and trotting off, oblivious to me or our other dog, in exactly the wrong direction. Robert Frost’s poem The Span of Life – ‘The old dog barks backwards without getting up. I can remember when he was a pup.’ – is brilliantly accurate in describing canine old age. Our good fortune is that other signs of senility remain mild. Bean doesn’t bark for seemingly no reason. She’s not irritable or clingy. Her sleep-wake cycle is only mildly out of kilter. She gets up at 2am, wanders out of our bedroom, in and out of the bathroom, then goes downstairs. Each evening she is restless and can’t settle. Thankfully, her control of her bladder and bowels remains Olympian.

The bottom line is the same with dogs as it is with us. ‘use it or lose it’ applies to us both

A protein called beta-amyloid is found post-mortem in elderly dogs with dementia. Investigations are ongoing to see if drugs or diet can slow down the development of this damaging protein. I haven’t seen much success with the medicines or foods that claim they are therapeutic for dogs with dementia.

I’ll give Bean a drug called Vivitonin (propentofylline) that increases the lungs'  ability to take up oxygen. In theory, a well oxygenated brain functions better. I’ll probably also give her a nutritional supplement, Aktivait, claimed to ‘support brain function’. I once showed this to a clinical pharmacologist who said, ‘This is a better combination than anything I’ve seen on the supplement market for people, but the quantities of the ingredients are too small to be effective.’

The bottom line is the same with dogs as it is with us. ‘Use it or lose it’ applies to us both. Bean will continue to get exercise and have play sessions. But I’ll also have a realistic expectation that ultimately there’s no treatment for old age.

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