Bon has always been a bit of a weirdo, I have always put it down to her being a bitch, and having ginger in her colouring!

She often stares into the distance, or directly at me, for quite a few minutes without blinking, and with some intensity, like she is trying to tell me something.... I know, who is the weirdo here really?!

In recent months, she is finding it hard to settle for more than a few minutes at a time, she will pace up and down the room, and in and out to the kitchen back door, wanting out, not always to go busy, but just to run up and down the same path she has worn in the garden, and she will be out there for ages, sniffing the same spots over and over, and she has become very disobedient.

She is still very active, runs the fields like a two year old - she is 11 in February - but is prone to periods of lameness, that I initially thought was arthritis, but have noticed two of her paws have what appears to be a kind of calcification setting in, something our first Pointer had, which turned out to be secondary bone cancer.

She is dead skinny, eats two meals a day with the usual enthusiasm, and drinks plenty. She is a nervy girl just recently too, something the other bitch has picked up on, and I am keeping a close eye on, because she is trying push her around a bit.

I have also noticed that this behaviour with Bon has become more noticeable since Sam came home for Christmas, i.e. our routine has changed again.

The incessant fidgeting is what is driving me most up the pole, it's exhausting to watch, and it makes the other three twitchy too.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Is she wandering the house at night? Acting confused? Sleeping OK?

What does the vet say about the paws?

Night time she sleeps like the dead, and after runs out, she completely relaxes and sleeps peacefully, but just for short periods during the day.

The vet doesn't see any problem with her paws, but they said that about Toby the old pointer too, said they were a bit swollen and prescribed non steroidals, Metacalm I seem to remember, but one of his paws was like rock, and eventually he kept falling over and one night couldn't get up, and couldn't squat to go busy, that's when I called it, but he was 14, and Bon is just 11.

I think I mentioned in an earlier post that she is a bit nervous moving about on the wooden floors, and goes Bambi like on occasion, out on the walks, she still charges about, but definitely has a stiffer gait these days.

The pacing is mostly in the evenings, and has an anxious look, her eyes are like saucers.

The nighttime pacing is usually pain or dementia or both.

"The nighttime pacing is usually pain or dementia or both."

My experience as well.


I do have one geriatric dog who fits into what Betty says, in a slightly different way. I believe that the discomfort for this specific dog is largely (or maybe all) from GI distress, empty stomach. That is, when he starts pacing, I get up and give him a snack of good protein and lead him back to bed.

So far, over several months, this has worked for this dog, fortunately.

"The pacing is mostly in the evenings, and has an anxious look, her eyes are like saucers."


Does she have a bed, in a fairly closed space? I am just going by what helped my geriatric granddog as he aged and had nighttime anxiety and confusion. (He was also on SAMe for the anxiety-depression.)

She and Hootie did have their 'cupboard under the stairs' up until earlier this year, when we had a thunder storm, and Hoots freaked out for the first time in his life, and refused to go back in there, and because they are joined at the hip, where he sleeps, she sleeps with him, so since then, they have slept on the sofas in the lounge.

The Boerboels sleep in the kitchen when I am at work, because Sugar can't be trusted not to play silly buggers with Kaiser unsupervised, and that nonsense does make the Pointers anxious.

It's a good point about Bon having her own quiet space again, I can organise that today.

Thanks Connie.

It's always been difficult to gauge pain with Bon, she is a tough little girl, and has got into all sorts of scrapes over the years with undergrowth, barbed wire, ditch jumping etc, and is generally a blunder bus, even during periods of lameness, she wants to run, obviously I make her rest up, and use the lead for going busy.

She gets really frustrated if she can't tear about, and I do have to save her from herself, but being a middle aged and getting cronky female myself, I do know how stiff I am in the evenings after being on my feet 15 hours a day, but like Bon, I also have to keep moving. It's really difficult trying to work out what's best for her, making the compromise between sensible restriction with exercise, and her not being able to scorch about the fields chasing scent, which is her whole raison detre.

I sincerely believe she is going do-lally, bless her old heart, is there anything that can be done to help her with that?

Thanks Betty.

When they initially thought Kasey was having dementia, before we discovered he was acting weird because of arthritis pain, they talked about a drug called Anipryl - here's the website
http://vetmedicine.about.com/cs/diseasesall/a/aniprylseniors.htm

It's not cheap but they said it really helps a lot of their dogs. I'd ask for a trail of pain med, like tramadol, before doing anything else, just to make sure she's not in pain. As soon as we started giving Kasey the tramadol he was a different dog - back to his old self, so it showed us there was not dementia.

Tracey,
I guess it could be a little of both, foggy mind and aching joints...... I just described myself. My first instinct though when reading your post was "pain" . I originally thought Thor was losing it mentally too but my vet thought otherwise and took a few xrays and he did have arthritis in his spine. For the last two years of his life he was on a daily dose of Metacam which greatly improved all his symptoms. He was around 12 when it began and lived to nearly 14. I did have to bite the bullet though and limit his physical activity, we still hiked every day but I stopped Frisbee and fetch completely. I did replace them with swimming and got involved in Noseworks. The Noseworks was a life saver, easy on him physically but challenging mentally and a wonderful outlet for his drive.
I hate to say it, but I think it might be time for you to bite that bullet too....... hey! I can hear you whining and crying all the way over the pond 0 I promise it will be worse on you than her....you just need to be inventive with how to occupy her. Mara I believe posted a link to a site with conditioning exercises that could be fun to do with her and maybe beneficial. Though I would strongly suggest checking with your Vet first.