Old dog not sleeping

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Emmahi

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I have an old (11) cavalier King Charles spaniel. He has always slept in the utility room with his 2 other friends. He has now taken to barking at all times of the night, waking the other 2. I have to then get up as do not want him waking the whole house. It's like having a new born baby again with the sleep deprivation!
Vet has given me tablets for him, increasing oxygen levels to the brain, made no difference.
He quite often barks and barks for no reason at any time of day. Goes in and out of garden all day.
Beginning to not be able yo cope, any ideas?
 
Can only offer sympathy my old boy barks if I am not in the room with him he's happy and sleeps well when he knows where I am .
He sleeps in my bedroom at night but will bark a fair bit during the day .
 
11 is not that old for a cavalier - my mum's cavaliers routinely live to 14-15 years old - but it sounds like he has dementia of some sort. That would explain the barking. As Goldenstar has said, could you not give him some security by letting him sleep in the bedroom with you? He would probably be much more settled if he was with you.
 
Thanks for the replies, tried having him in the bedroom with us- just stood at door and barked or paced around. He is very happy with the other 2 at night and I think feels quite secure there. The vet said it is quite common for older dogs to loose track of day and night. He's quite healthy apart from this, well apart from a heart murmur and being a bit wobbly.
 
Has the vet given Vivitonin? I had this for my elderly Lab and it did help her. My cat sometimes miaows for no reason, and the vet says it could be due to high blood pressure. I think that sometimes our dogs do seem to have dementia, and it's horrible watching them when they seem confused. Sorry I can't offer any constructive advice, except perhaps to give some Ttouch to help him?
 
I have a friend whose dog started to do that and as she has her horse on the Turmeric mixture she started the dog on it. It took about a week but she has seen a difference. The dog seems much calmer. Have a look at the facebook page.
 
Sounds like canine cognitive dysfunction, basically canine dementia. There are medications they can have to ease the symptoms which you can get from your vet. In my vet practice we use a product called activait for this, which seems to have really helped the majority of dogs we've given it to.
 
Tedley said:
Sounds like canine cognitive dysfunction, basically canine dementia. ........
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I thought (the canine dementia bit! :)). Generally with old age animals and humans too, tend to sleep more, rather than less. How distressing such dementia is for the animal, would be hard to say. As a lot of things, I suspect that it's worse for those who spectate.

I'm sure that, as Tedley says, there are medications which can help. Probably not much help, but there we are!

Alec.
 
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