We have a 13 year old female Keeshond. She’s partially to mostly deaf, and she has a cataract in each eye. Over the last few days, she’s become extremely restless. It seems the only thing that calms her down is taking her outside. (I can’t just let her out - we live on the 14th floor.)
She’s eating normally, both food and treats. She pees, she poops, no diarrhea. She’s walking normally with her usually jaunty gait. She’s not exhibiting any pain, as far as I can tell. She’s letting the kids in the neighborhood come up and pet her without any problems. The only problem is that she’s restless and constantly whining to be taken out. (I took her out many times today, which included sitting near a busy intersection - she loves watching the people and the cars. We went on a few walks today, including one of about 45 minutes.)
I want to avoid taking her to the vet - it stresses her out. I’m not sure what he’d be able to tell me, since her only symptom in the restlessness.
Is she pacing? If so, that’s a sign of doggy dementia. I’m dealing with it myself with my 13-year-old pug. Like yours, she’s somewhat deaf and has some sight problems as well. Eats, pees, poops, etc. But some nights… the pacing starts. Back & forth, take her out, she does her business, back in, more pacing. Offer her food/treats, she eats, then paces. Pace pace pace. It’s maddening, but so far, I’ve found nothing that helps.
And, for the record, I’ve taken her to the vet. Heck, at this age, she’s at the vet for something-or-other at least once a month. Ear infection, anal glands, bladder infection. Old dogs are not for the weak. But she’s my doggy, I’ll take care of her as long as she sticks around.
My dog is 12 and has recently started this thing that if he sees me on the computer he starts bugging me to take him out. He doesn’t really need to go he just wants to go out and has figured out he can bug me till I take him.
Pacing and whining are signs of pain in dogs, and they don’t always show their pain in ways you’d expect. I had to put down my old dog last summer after nursing him along through some fairly severe arthritis–then he got a huge liver tumor that decided the issue.
The link above is to the mobile hospice/euthanasia company that handled Widget’s end of life care, they’re very good and work hard to keep stress to a minimum. You might want to see about having someone come to you to assess your doggo to see if her restlessness is a sign of something further amiss than you think. Thirteen is a respectable age and if she’s just got arthritis going on maybe some good heavy meds would settle her down.
My dog at that age also goes through this from time to time. He’s on Mirtazapine now, (Remeron), and it seems to have helped. He doesn’t want to eat his dogfood unless I handfeed him his food (he eats everything else he can get his teeth around, so it’s just him wanting to be handfed. Which is fine.) His vet checks are always clean, though.
I agree that a vet visit is in order, at least to discuss possible pain or calming options.
Well, she slept fine last night. This morning when I took her out, she ate grass and made herself vomit. She’s been fine all day, and it’s already almost dinner time. I guess her stomach was bothering her.
