The Poster Child for Cognitive Dysfunction
Woman in the Middle | February 9, 2016Who, me? I am just enjoying the patio. What’s a poster child?
On a recent morning, Honey, who will be 16 in a few months, went outside. Two an a half hours later she was whining and pacing about so Eldest Daughter tried to put her out again but Honey ran to her bed, her universal sign for “Don’t need to, thank you!” Thirty seconds later she piddled right there in front of us.
Ironically, Eldest and I were at that very moment going over a list of the signs of cognitive dysfunction, or dementia, in older dogs. Guess what one of them is? “Eliminates indoors in view of you or family members.”
Ironically, I had just had a conversation with some ladies about how much longer pets seem to live now than they did even 10 years ago. I guess when a dog lives a very long time they have to deal with the very same issues humans have to deal with – pain, hearing loss, eyesight problems and dementia.
One bright spot is that everything online mentions that, unlike humans, dogs don’t seem to be too terribly perturbed about, well, losing their mind. After all, long chess games, good books, and vigorous conversation about world problems are not something they do. We were pleased to read that.
Honey has also developed some arthritis in her elbows. We were giving her pain medication, but it requires regular liver function tests. Then, on the recommendation of an acquaintance, we began feeding Honey a “joint health” dog food. That has worked really well and she no longer needs the pain medicine. As for her hearing and eyesight, well, nothing we can do there but she gets along fine.
As for the rest of it, we do put her ot a lot more often and that takes care of most of the problems. Sometimes it doesn’t, so we clean it up. We may not like it, but that is the least we can do for our dear, dysfunctional furry family member.
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