Question:
I want to know about geriatric Dementia in Dogs?

Our 13 year old German Shorthaired Pointer has started acting strangely,especially in the evening. She will shiver in fear for no reason, andshow signs of disorientation, especially right at bed time. Lastnight, she got off the bed and just stood in one spot.

We have another GSHP , 4 years old. The younger dog is moreaggressive,although in their play rituals, Tina (the older one) is dominant.

Is there anything I can do for her?

She has always had an enthusiastic and affectionate personality, andit is painful for us to see her in such distress all the time. Whenwe show her the frisbeeeeee, she's her old self again, but it onlylasts a few minutes.

Answer: Yes, dogs can get senile. My old vizsla did, at the age of about 13 or 14.Sometimes it's hard todistinguish from the general "sensory deprivation syndrome" as theirvision and hearing goes, but the kind of disorientation you describesounds very familiar to me. The dog seems to be in a fog most of the time.Normally there are no special problems associated with it, though mydog started having strange aggressive moments--an almost unthinkableproblem for thisformerly very gentle, sociable dog. Suddenly she would go into"fear mode", bristling and snarling, then seem to forget about it all afew moments later. One day she wandered up to mylittle son, then seven months old, without any provocation bit him onthe forehead, breaking the skin, then wandered away vaguely while thechild screamed in pain and surprise. For me, thatwas it; I had her put to sleep the next day. The vet who did it told methat when autopsies are done on such dogs, they have brain lesions similarto those in Alzheimer's patients.

The shaking might be another thing entirely. I had another old dog thatshook in the last years of his life, but he had all his marbles right tothe end. The vet told me it was some kind of degeneration of the nervoussystem.