Doggie Alzheimer's

In Memory of Our Boy Baldrick Kennel Club Name: ‘Glimmer Of Hope’

9th July 1993 to 10th May 2005

We started noticing little changes in our dog Baldrick’s behaviour, he stopped greeting us excitedly at the door, he seemed even not to recognise us or his brother anymore. We convinced ourselves that he probably just wanted a quiet life as he got older, although we didn’t consider nine years to be that old for a Bichon Frisé, he had been reasonably healthy all his life and he was always a laid back sort of chap, unlike his hyperactive brother who would bounce around like a mad dog. It wasn’t long before we started to get really worried, and as the months and another year past he got progressively worse and his personality seemed to change. He couldn’t be bothered to eat he sat facing the wall or in a corner and increasingly became confused and disorientated, getting lost in furniture not being able to work out how to get out from under the bed, we would hear the ‘donk’ of his head bashing into something and we would rush to help him. An otherwise clean boy he was forgetting to go outside having little accidents around the house. One of the strangest things he would do was to pad aimlessly round in circles for hours on end, most of the time at night, he would sleep all day and pad all night, often walking into wardrobes. We consulted our trusty vet book and soon realised that our beloved boy was suffering from doggie Alzheimer’s, of course by now we had guessed as much but didn’t realise that it was a real condition, it even had a clinical name: Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome and of the many symptoms our boy had pretty much by now developed all of them. He wasn’t ill as such and if you called him and encouraged him along he would eventually get there in the end, he never forgot the one and only trick he ever learnt which was to give you five and because we loved him so very much of course we forgave him everything and learned to live with his increased failings and the nightly disruptions as he clonked about the place. Most evenings were spent coaxing him to eat, carrying him up to bed, fitting a dog guard in case he forgot he was at the top of the stairs, making sure that when we were out (not that he knew if we were in or out) that he couldn’t hurt himself. In fact we made a number of household safety changes from fitting night lights to blocking things off to ensure he couldn’t come to any harm. Unbelievably we carried on like this for more than three years, he wasn’t bad all the time some days were better than others but it broke our hearts to watch him and it had a profound effect on our daily lives and routines. Inevitably we had to accept that his quality of life had reduced to such an extent that we had to do the right thing for him, we owed it to him for being such a wonderful, loyal and loving boy. As bad as this might sound we preyed he would go peacefully in his sleep, so we wouldn’t have to do the deed, but no, our Vet confirmed his heart was strong and this was not likely to happen. More likely was organ failure as his thin and frail little body was now beginning to show signs of the strain of not being able to eat properly and he urged us not to leave it too late, but when is the right time and when is too late in these situations! If you’ve been in a similar situation with a pet you will understand how impossibly difficult this decision is. He was still walking around bumbling into things he wasn’t at deaths door but by now there was no quality of life he was with us in body but not mind. He still loved a cuddle even if he didn’t know who was cuddling him! This devastating and progressive disease is incredibly difficult to cope with, there is no cure and the inevitable outcome is just a matter of when.

In our hearts we knew we had done everything possible to guarantee his comfort and safety in his final years, now it was simply a case of being brave and doing the right thing for his sake, we wanted to keep our boy’s dignity to the end.

We brought him home at 8 weeks, marvelled at how handsome he was, laughed at his antics, found him a brother for company and we loved every special day we had him, our boy didn’t quite make 12 years old.

You can never replace a beloved dog and Baldrick was irreplaceable but seven months after we lost him we filled the gap he left with a new dog. We found Toby aged nine on the Bichon Frisé Rescue internet pages, (www.bichonfriserescue.co.uk) a big boy with a big heart and Barney’s new companion they loved each other from the off and even though they are both old boys they get up to much mischief together. I cannot imagine life without dogs and indeed it is such a shame that they are with us for a relatively short part of our lives.

For the last three years of his life Baldrick used to walk round and round the coffee table, maybe a hundred times unless distracted.
A relatively newly recognised disease - the symptoms of Doggie Alzheimer’s include some of the following:
• Confusion
• Anxiety
• Abnormal Sleeping Patterns
• Bowel/Bladder incontinence and or abnormal toileting
• Disinterest in everything around him
• Forgetfulness
• Disorientation
• Irritability
• Abnormal eating – loss of appetite
• Separation anxiety
• Engages in repetitive and compulsive disorder
• Paces and wanders aimlessly