congnitive dysfunction syndrome

[mim]

tomorrow we will take our 11 yr old yellow to our vet....she has rapidly become confused, disoriented, disinterested, and her balance is off. she wanders up and down our hallway, heads into the corners without having a clue of what she is doing. is there anything that i should be doing to make life easier for her? she is sooooo much a part of me......holding me together through the loss of my son, my Mother and my baby sister. I want to do what is the best for her.

[tkeizer]

I don't really have a lot of advice for you, however, having a 13-year old, I can certainly empathize with what you are going through. Unfortunately, it is the downside of getting older. Gin too has moments of not being aware of what she's doing or where's she's going -- she'll get up from her pillow in a flash and then wonder up and down the hallway and then will stop and stare into an empty bedroom, wall, me ... I'll try to figure out what she wants, but most of the time, it's just letting her figure it out or she'll head back to her favourite pillow until the urge to get up comes again. Physically, she is a lot slower, definately more wobbly - her back end needs to be supported when going up and down stairs, however she will still lose her balance at times. Her hearing is almost non-existent unless you are standing directly in front of her or if you are opening the treat jar - I think she will always have a sixth sense for this. She needs to be woken up gently as she startles easily and gets quite a fright. Event though she goes out regularly, I have found over the past few months that her "urge to go" doesn't always have a lot of warning and sometimes she will partly go in the house -- good thing, they are quite solid and easily picked up. After all of this, she is a happy girl - her tail still wags a mile a minute and could probably give you a black eye if it hit you in the face; her face still lights up when she knows she is going for a walk or about to get a treat; and she is still able to hold her own when Aila decides she wants to play 'bitey face' - albeit, they play a laying down version of it!

The only advice I can give you is to monitor her, have regular vet check ups, and make life as easy and comfortable as possible - after 11 years, she deserves to be pampered!

I hope that everything get's cleared at the vets and that all that is wrong is simple aging.

[zoezoe]

if that IS what it turns out to be; there is a drug for that.