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I have a 15-year old Labrador. He's had (among other things) issues with panting & pacing over the past year. I've done a lot of research online and asked his Vet. Most of the respondents said it was heat related which I knew in his case was not a factor. It's been a journey.
Today, I came across the following article about Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome (CDS) which is a dimentia similar to Alzheimer's disease in people. I thought it may help others who have pets with similar problems.
Thanks so much for the information on CDS or doggie dementia, as I call it.
Our 11 year old MinPin has been exhibiting some signs that are becoming more frequent, such as staring off into space, and situational deafness. I'm going to keep my eye out for more symptoms, and discuss it with the vet if it progresses further.
Last edited by Col.W.Deering; 07-19-2010 at 03:24 PM..
Same thing with our 15 year old GSP. Pacing/panting is the worst, with other issues. Our vet recommended melatonin at night time, and it has helped him sleep through the night over 95% of the time. He still will start pacing/panting each afternoon, after a whole day of normal behavior, but we all get sleep now. I was hesitant to try it, but so far, so good.
Because we still have the occasional nights where the melatonin doesn't work, and in hoping to see if we can dial back the late afternoon pacing/panting, I again looked into anipryl. But with our dog's prior history of seizures when younger, our vet recommended we try Sam-e (S-Adenosylmethionine) first. It is primarily used for liver dysfunction, but also has helped dogs with dementia, and can help with arthritis. It appears to be free from serious side effects. Our boy also had slightly elevated liver values from a med regime that was necessary to save his life a few months ago, and has arthritis. So am thinking it can't hurt to try this, since it might help with several of his issues.
While I understand that the Sam-e human version is the same as the dog version (in pill form), I've read that there can be issues with quality control in the human version, with some brands being more reliable in that regard than others (Nature Made was mentioned repeatedly as more reliable than others). Don't know if that is accurate or not, but after further research, I ordered a product called denosyl, available in pills or chewables. I am trying the chewables, as the dosage our dog needs requires a big pill (can't cut the pills in half because of the needed enteric coating). He is such a good boy that every morning he eats his pepcid and his small prednisone pill before I feed him, just from my hand - a big horse sized pill might be pushing it. It is not cheap, but less than than the anipyrl, and online, it is available for a huge reduction over what it cost per pill at the vet.
Here are a couple of links that explain a little bit about anipryl and denosyl - there is a lot of really good in depth info out there with a brief google search (I'd find more, but I didn't bookmark things and dialup is being evil right now Pretty interesting stuff; I just hope this helps our boy even just a little bit. I'll try to report back in this forum about any big positives, negatives or if it is a no result after he gets going on it.
I've had three seniors with some symptoms- all getting stuck in corners, barking at the wall, not seeming to know where they are in space. Not much anxiety, though.
It's hard to watch them age.
Thank you to all who responded. I always thought his panting/pacing was due to pain caused by hip displaysia and arthritis, but now I wonder.
His Vet has prescribed canine steroids twice. I never saw noticeable improvement. I looked up the medical information on the internet and the side effects and the owner comments scared me so much I threw them away. It was very expensive.
I turned to researching homeopathy. After lots of reading and conferring with a homeopathic Vet (no charge, awesome lady), I now have him on a healthy diet, a regimen of vitamins, glucosamine chondriotin w/MSM, Fish Oil, Arnica Montana, and Bryonia Alba. It took a while to get the dosage right on the homeopathy meds but the Vet and the knowledgeable staff at the nutrition store told me not to worry that I couldn't overdose him. I ended up with two of each twice daily and sometimes once in the afternoon.
He also barks occasionally at nothing. Just yesterday he went behind the couch and barked. When he surfaced, he was panting. Later he went into a walk-in closet and did the same thing. I gave him his little pills and within 20 minutes, he was resting.
Last edited by TampaKaren; 07-20-2010 at 10:50 AM..
Reason: Spelling errors
My maltese had this for a couple of years before he died. It was really terrible to watch and I had no idea what to do. I tried the anipryl but it did not seem to do anything for him; perhaps he was too far gone before we started it.
I imagine it's like anyone would feel watching their loved one with dementia - slowly losing all their capabilities.
I think now I would be better able to handle it; but Casper was my first dog of my own (my parents' dogs never seemed to live that long).
Anyway, I wish you the best and hope that it does not progress quickly.
I have a 17 year old dachshund exhibiting signs of CDS. She also has cushings disease which has been successfully treated for 6 years by the drug Viteroyl ( I recommend it). The vet does not want her on Anipryl because he said it will conflict with the Cushings medicine and has her on denosyl 90mg
s-adenosylmethionine, which is working but? Any recommendations from the vet. Thank you very much!
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Pretty interesting stuff; I just hope this helps our boy even just a little bit. I'll try to report back in this forum about any big positives, negatives or if it is a no result after he gets going on it. 
