Hi all My yellow lab Roxy turns 15 this month. In the past few months I’ve noticed a change in her behavior, which started off slowly but has now become a daily occurrence. Every day is like this: I come downstairs around 6am to find she’s pooped and peed everywhere and is constantly pacing and panting. We have an open plan ground floor with a central staircase so she just walks around and around the staircase in circles until I let her out. After I feed her I’ll let her out again and sometimes she’ll go. She’ll then pace and pant for another hour or so before she lays down and then sleeps for hours. At night she’ll just sleep and more panting/pacing. Her walks still seem okay even though she’s certainly more out of breath. Also seems like she wants to drink a lot. Even if she goes to the bathroom outside at midnight, she’ll still have accidents by the morning. I’ve been limiting her water in the evening but it doesn’t seem to help. I also feed her around 4pm (used to feed her later) but the pooping in the house seems so random as if she can’t control it. She never whines to be let out. She’ll just go. She even pooped right there as she was eating one day. She’s not 100% deaf but she’s getting close to it. Her eyesight seems okay though. She has trouble getting up and is slow to to sit. It’s the pacing and panting I don’t quite understand. Like is it pain or dementia? She doesn’t seem in pain to me yet she doesn’t seem like she’s lost her marbles either. Took her to the vet and blood work and urine analysis came back fine. Vet said could be anxiety with dementia but couldn’t tell. When she’s not pacing around she’s sleeping so she doesn’t really interact with anyone, including myself. And of course the frequent accidents are manageable because we have tiled floors and I work from home. Currently I take her out every 2-3 hours but she’ll still have accidents. Has anyone experienced the same symptoms that I mentioned above? Wondering how long before things get worse? Thanks!
Sounds like dementia to me. Yes, panting and pacing are a common symptom. If she looks disoriented, then it definitely is dementia. My boy had dementia the last 3 years of his life (and he made it to 17). Apart from pacing he would also start barking randomly. Diagnosis was confirmed by a neurologist, and he was put on Selegiline and vitamin supplements. The episodes of confusion still occured, but were rare, so the medication helped a lot. He died from causes not related to dementia. I suggest you take the same route and get a neurologist consult.
