Author Topic: Kidney problem and? Dementia.  (Read 2373 times)

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Offline revis

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Kidney problem and? Dementia.
« on: August 30, 2017, 07:54:49 PM »
Maggie who will be 14 next month has kidney problems. On a scale of 1-4 hers are 2  high blood pressure too much protein in her urine. She. Is going to start on Fortekor pills and low salt diet. She has gone off all the biscuits only thing she likes are boar nuggets which can't be good for her. Any advice on what to give. She also has the problem that she is deaf and vision very bad. I can hardly leave the room if I do she cries then will bark and bark. She is doing this as I write this despite knowing I am here. I can't get cross with her but don't know what to do! Made worse as I am now on my own with her. Sorry for this long problem. Advice would be great. She spent 7 years in a puppy farm so never had the best start.

Offline TheAdventuresofBarnaby

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Re: Kidney problem and? Dementia.
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2017, 10:46:17 AM »
Poor Maggie and poor you.  You both have our sympathies.

Our old girl Betty was exactly the same at 14 years old,  and soldiered on till she was 16 1/2

Is Maggie eating the low salt diet?  If yes,  that's a great start.

Blindness + Deafness + dementia is a horrible combination, leaving her very isolated and disoriented.  It was particularly distressing for Betty at the stage that she had partial hearing in just one ear. Once that ear went deaf too,  she calmed considerably.

Things we did to help Betty,  that seemed to work were:

Kept spaces she was used to living in free from new object that she could become entangled in. She would get entangled and confused under dining chairs that were out of place for example.

Let her live pretty much her normal routine,  and left doors ajar in the house so that she could have free run. ( fine until pee-related problems from the kidney failure kicked in.

Sense of smell: Betty fortunately kept a good sense of smell to the end,  so we were still able to play hide and seek games with her by hiding toys and treats

While going through the partial deafness phase we stopped giving her sound commands while out on our walks.  She very quickly adapted.  I am convinced that she retained some sort of low frequency hearing as whenever we stopped walking after a few seconds Betty would always stop too.  We were able to "call " her back to us by stamping our feet.???

We're lucky enough to live in a part of the world where there is loads of free space in which to roam.  And roam we did,  mostly with Betty off lead.  Using extremely limited sight,  but her still good scenting capability she very much enjoyed the freedom,  and always found her way back to us by scent.  We never lost her once,  not even on her frequent off-piste excursions in the forests that we walk.

Touch:  Betty always was happy being touched,  so we made a point of fussing her often,  which she liked.

Reaction:  Betty was always a communicative girl,  and as she grew older we made sure that we were very reactive to her.   So if she got into a fix under a chair for example we'd quickly be able to untangle her.  I think this is important as it lets the dog have freedom to mooch about,  knowing that if they get into difficulties their slaves will come a-running:-)

OK so that's a rather long list of things that worked for us. We hope Maggie will adapt equally well.

All the best
Jon,  Sarka and new-boy Barnaby.




Offline ips

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Re: Kidney problem and? Dementia.
« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2017, 10:53:25 AM »
Poor Maggie and poor you.  You both have our sympathies.

Our old girl Betty was exactly the same at 14 years old,  and soldiered on till she was 16 1/2

Is Maggie eating the low salt diet?  If yes,  that's a great start.

Blindness + Deafness + dementia is a horrible combination, leaving her very isolated and disoriented.  It was particularly distressing for Betty at the stage that she had partial hearing in just one ear. Once that ear went deaf too,  she calmed considerably.

Things we did to help Betty,  that seemed to work were:

Kept spaces she was used to living in free from new object that she could become entangled in. She would get entangled and confused under dining chairs that were out of place for example.

Let her live pretty much her normal routine,  and left doors ajar in the house so that she could have free run. ( fine until pee-related problems from the kidney failure kicked in.

Sense of smell: Betty fortunately kept a good sense of smell to the end,  so we were still able to play hide and seek games with her by hiding toys and treats

While going through the partial deafness phase we stopped giving her sound commands while out on our walks.  She very quickly adapted.  I am convinced that she retained some sort of low frequency hearing as whenever we stopped walking after a few seconds Betty would always stop too.  We were able to "call " her back to us by stamping our feet.???

We're lucky enough to live in a part of the world where there is loads of free space in which to roam.  And roam we did,  mostly with Betty off lead.  Using extremely limited sight,  but her still good scenting capability she very much enjoyed the freedom,  and always found her way back to us by scent.  We never lost her once,  not even on her frequent off-piste excursions in the forests that we walk.

Touch:  Betty always was happy being touched,  so we made a point of fussing her often,  which she liked.

Reaction:  Betty was always a communicative girl,  and as she grew older we made sure that we were very reactive to her.   So if she got into a fix under a chair for example we'd quickly be able to untangle her.  I think this is important as it lets the dog have freedom to mooch about,  knowing that if they get into difficulties their slaves will come a-running:-)

OK so that's a rather long list of things that worked for us. We hope Maggie will adapt equally well.

All the best
Jon,  Sarka and new-boy Barnaby.

What a lovely post 😊
You did her proud jon 👍
Muddling along in the hope that one day it all makes sense.

Offline revis

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Re: Kidney problem and? Dementia.
« Reply #3 on: August 31, 2017, 02:50:11 PM »
Thanks so much for all the advice . She likes the lowsalt food but sometimes looks for a treat and has gone off all biscuits etc. ther sence of smell is good and she doesn't bump into many things as Ithink that she still has a bit of vision. Walking has never been very good and now she will only go for very short walks. She doesn't have a pee problem yet. All our other Cockers  we had never lived to an old age so sad to see the years going on. I have another girl Jessie who is 10 she has had pancreatitis so is on a low fat diet also a puppy farm girl. Jessie relies a lot on Maggie but Maggie ignores her!
Thanks again.

Offline Poppsie

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Re: Kidney problem and? Dementia.
« Reply #4 on: August 31, 2017, 03:18:13 PM »
Sorry to hear about your baby  :luv: when my Poppy had this we gave her steamed white fish which she used to wolf down :luv: and it is low fat and low salt maybe you could try this as well for your fur baby ?  :luv: :luv: x x x

poppy 31/12/95-27/4/2009
Pebbles 14/1/97-10/2/2011 
my beautiful girls together again forever x

Offline revis

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Re: Kidney problem and? Dementia.
« Reply #5 on: August 31, 2017, 05:36:17 PM »
Thanks Poppsie . Great idea as it would suit both girls.

Offline TheAdventuresofBarnaby

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Re: Kidney problem and? Dementia.
« Reply #6 on: August 31, 2017, 08:47:27 PM »
Her liking the low salt diet is really good news.  It'll keep her going for a long time.

So Maggie is not as much of an outdoor girl as was Betty.  So its a  matter of finding ways to d the things she always used to enjoy.  Cockers seem to be complete ritualists,  so doing something that was liked in the past will most probably still be enjoyable.