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Well it’s been a while. We had so much to say last year and no time to say it. Around the time of our last blog post (spring 2011), our old man Vince started having some health issues. Vince will be 14 this coming April and is blind, deaf, and has a “roommate” (brain tumor). I know, you’re thinking “what else could go wrong?”. Well Vince’s age put him right at the sweet spot for canine cognitive dysfunction aka doggy alzheimer’s.
Yup, we’re that lucky. Now, how did we figure out what was going on? As per list above, Vince has a couple quirks already. But he’s a happy boy and doesn’t suffer from any of these issues – only my wallet and my heart do that. But in Feb/Mar he started getting really restless…he’d pace all day (instead of sleeping like he normally would LOL) and at night – forget it. He’d fall asleep for an hour, wake up and bark and pace til you gave him a treat, fall asleep for another…rinse, lather, repeat. He wasn’t sleeping restfully and I wasn’t sleeping at all…but my ordeal is a post for another day though.
So he went to vet and got checked out…I went into this knowing it could be a handful of things, from CCD to cancer or ??. After a lot of poking and prodding nothing came up as funky so we were left with cancer we couldn’t find or CCD. Now in all my research of CCD the restlessness and barking and basically the “inconsolability” (I may have just made up that word) were key symptoms. But another was peeing/pooping in the house. Now Vince once held it for 16 hrs (don’t ask) so I didn’t think it was CCD…then it happened. Vince walked past me in the front room and just let go – peed all over the floor. Over the next few days this kept happening, no matter how often we took him out, so I dx’d CCD.
As an FYI we had already tried supplements like melatonin and even tried Valium for the restlessness at night, absolutely no effect. My vet had never dx’d CCD before and wasn’t that familiar with Anipryl – the only drug that treats CCD. But key with Anipryl is you have to start it early or you get no results. I kind of put my foot down and said it was my $ to waste if it didn’t work but I didn’t want to wait until it was too late. So we started the Anipryl…and it’s working…so here we are.
That was a long answer to a short ?, but also gives you the background on why we’re making this blog all about CCD and on dealing with it. It’s not easy to be a caregiver for any animal with a chronic condition…but the lack of sleep and the increased demands 24/7 of dealing with a CCD dog can bring the kindest, most self-less parent to their knees. There’s a lot of frustration and exhaustion and anger. You get angry at the disease and try not to take it out on the dog – of course I would never harm Vince, he’s my life – but I’m glad he’s deaf cuz boy has he been called some nasty names over the past months.
So I want other caregivers to be able to use this blog as a resource for education about CCD and treatment, but also as a spot for moral support. I’m not in this alone and neither are you.
