We have a 12.5 year old lab that seems to be showing signs of it. He can't relax, is always anxious, if he does lay down he pops back up excitedly after a couple minutes and runs to a random spot in the house and does these half barks at nothing. Sometimes they become full barks. He isn't sleeping which means my wife and I aren't sleeping. It is beyond miserable. The restlessness increases in the evening in to the night. He also pants heavily all day and has some anxiety about being directly next to us at all times.

We had a full blood work up done and a physical and literally everything came back great and there was only a slight amount of tenderness in his back legs in the physical.

We are essentially being held hostage and it is taking over our lives. Very sad and frustrating.

We were given gabapentin and rimadyl which we are starting today and hoping they do something, but those seem to be for pain/inflammation. The vet also recommended hills b/d prescription food but it appears to be discontinued.

Any insight y'all can provide will be much appreciated because this is very stressful not being able to do anything at all at the house and getting no sleep. We have a vacation planned and we can not send him to the kennel or leave someone at our house while he is like this.

We had one acting similar to what you described, and it turned out she was diabetic. Insulin shots for the last 4 years of her life seemed to keep her in good shape until the body gave completely out.

SunrayAg said:

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We had one acting similar to what you described, and it turned out she was diabetic. Insulin shots for the last 4 years of her life seemed to keep her in good shape until the body gave completely out.

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I didn't ask about this specifically but I feel like that would have come up in the blood work, although the only thing that wasn't in the green was glucose and that was only very slightly elevated and she said most likely from the stress of the vet and what not and I would think it would be low if he was diabetic.

The vet said repeatedly that he was in very good physical shape for his age.

Yes, dementia in dogs is a thing. No clue of this is that, but it is a thing.
My wife and I will be glad to take your vacation for you. No kids though.

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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Yes, dementia in dogs is a thing. No clue of this is that, but it is a thing.
My wife and I will be glad to take your vacation for you. No kids though.

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Oh I definitely know it's a thing, just trying to find out if anyone has experienced it and if it was similar to this. The sun downing really makes me think it is dementia but the vet wasn't sold and there's not really a test for it.

MouthBQ98 said:

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Welcome to an elderly dog with a bit of dementia. I have been through several. It isn't easy. It helps to keep them more active during the day so they get tired and don't sundown as much. There are support supplements and food that may help minimize or reduce some symptoms.

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Yea unfortunately the food recommended seems to be discontinued so I will have to call up there tomorrow. I just hope this gabapentin puts him out tonight so we can get some sleep. I haven't had any real sleep since I got back from offshore last Wednesday. Doesn't help that I've been hanging drywall during the days either. I'm really dragging ass.

We had a German Shepherd many years back that was about 10 yrs. age and started acting the same. Our old Aggie vet ran all sorts of test and found nothing....until we discovered he seemed to not be hearing as well and the vet said that hearing loss in dogs can cause tinnitus the same as humans and that he may be having that and needed time to adjust to the noise. Turns out he must have been right because after about 6 months he was back to about normal, although it seemed like he was hard of hearing. He lived for two more years and was fine till he just gave out one day.

Our old dog had it and it was way worse in the evenings than during the day. She would just pace all around the house, and then if you let her outside, she would absolutely not get off the patio to go pee/crap, so then would inevitably sneak off to a corner inside the house to do it. She also started getting frequent seizures. There was no fix besides eventually making a tough call.

Yea his hearing is definitely going from years as a gun dog mixed with old age.

This has almost been a gradual increase though with his behavior because for the last year he would randomly stop somewhere in the house and bark and not want to move unless one of us went to where he could see us and called him in, but his latest symptoms are taking this to the extreme with the nervousness and barking at nothing all day. We literally can't get a break and with it getting worse in the evening and lasting all night it is just wrecking our lives.

I am hoping that it is just inflammation and pain and the meds I mentioned earlier help.

We will also get out and throw the ball for him a couple times a day and try to get him worn out and hopefully that helps as well, but if it's inflammation and pain then that does the opposite of helping.

Would it be totally inappropriate to ask the vet for something that will make him sleep? The gabapentin might. Seem like it would not hurt him and would help you immensely. Would also follow up on the food angle for a different brand. Unfortunately, 12.5 is approaching for a lab. Absolutely not trying to be mean


May just be a sign that you are nearing the tough decision time sooner than expected. Had a small breed dog we lost earlier this year at 11/12. Way earlier than expected because something went wrong and things spiraled down. It was unexpected and all encompassing for a while until we made the choice.

We had it with our golden retriever mix years ago when she was 13-14. She would get restless at night and walk in a circle for what seemed like hours, and started to have issues going inside. We could've probably dealt with that, but she also developed really bad arthritis in her hind legs. Still happy at times, but we ultimately decided to give her rest.

Smartest dog I ever had.

Our almost 14 year old weimaraner takes a gabapentin every night. It does wonders. No one sleeps if he doesn't get it. Hes fine during the day, but is insanely restless at night without it.

We will see if the gabapentin works over the next few nights as well as the NSAID. I'm hoping that this combo works and they approve a script through chewy cause they sure were proud of those pills at the vet.

ETA if we are approaching a tough decision, it absolutely sucks because the vet said otherwise he is the picture of health physically.

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We were given gabapentin and rimadyl which we are starting today and hoping they do something, but those seem to be for pain/inflammation.

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If I were you I would try to get something that helps you sleep.

Just kidding. It's just how I read it at first.


My old dog Stan had it. He was a feature in all of the puppy videos we did over the years. Big Uncle Stan. It was sad to watch but fortunately he didn't have the frenzy thing your dog has. He just got lost a lot and randomly barked at *****

He actually wondered off one day and drowned in a neighbor's pool. This is a dog that rarely got ten feet from his territory on his own in the 8 years he lived here. He loved his leash and would go for walks, but not by himself. He walked down the street about 100 yards, wondered into my neighbors back yard where he had never been before, and fell in the pool. Sad ending, but beat the inevitable cancer and pain he was headed towards and really already in.


Dog dementia is very real.

We have given him melatonin over the last week and it did absolutely nothing as well.

Wife's dog from college (very large breed) had this for the last 6 months or so of her life. I knew it was almost time to put her down but it took about 2-3 seizures before she finally agreed. We waited about 2-3 months too long and she would wake us up almost every night lost in a room in our house barking. It was really unfortunate because our final memories of her were more in frustration than they should have been.

Not saying you need to put the dog down but be thinking about it or have the conversation now with the wife/family on what line or point until you make that decision.

Have a 14yr old lab/golden mix that started doing similar things about 2 years ago. She had always slept next to our bed but we think the combination of hearing and vision loss along with being in our pitch black room with white noise machines started giving her anxiety all of a sudden. Panting and pacing all night long and asking to go out but not needing to pee. We read some posts somewhere about moving her bed to the living room with more ambient light/windows and less noise and that combined with CBD pills and gabapentin have really improved everyone's quality of life.

Have you tried any CBD offerings? I would not mix it with anything until you know how it interacts but we use it for ours with anxiety.

Get some CBN + Melatonin for yourself.

Sorry to hear about the pup and your situation. Hope you get it figured out soon.

I am certainly not a vet but I was was prescribed gabapentin for extreme nerve pain due to a spinal injury. It works by slowing nerve impulses to the brain which supposedly reduces the excitability of nerve cells in the brain.
It totally messed with me and caused me to have severe hallucinations and created a severe brain fog. It is also prescribed for people with epilepsy. My mom actually had dementia and the doctor put her on gabapentin and it accelerated her symptoms greatly. After what it did to me and seeing what it did to my mom I would highly suggest talking to your vet about something different. I will never take it nor will anyone else in my family ever again.

Ask your vet if Selegiline would work for your dog.... it is primarily prescribed for canine cognitive dysfunction syndrome in dogs, which is a form of dog dementia. I put a dog on it a few months ago and it vastly improved the dog's (and the owner's) quality of life by improving sleep...

***This is not medical advice but a suggestion to ask your veterinarian about it***

I asked about this yesterday and she said from the vets she has talked with, they have seen very little success with it.

Good call on CBD pills.

Another thing, my wife lets him sleep on the bed when I am offshore and I don't allow him to. Been arguing for no dogs in the bed my whole marriage, but that's neither here nor there. At night when we let him on the bed he seems to chill out, at least he did two nights ago, although he was still a little restless and woke me up a bunch. Last night though with the gabapentin he zonked out on the bed all night. Tried to have him sleep on the floor and he was pacing and barking. Ugh, guess my bed got a little smaller.

I would consider calling Best Retrievers in Paige/Giddings to ask for their assessment. Fantastic people and good Ags who have worked with thousands of dogs, mostly labs.

My dog would have gone to training there if they didn't have a massive wait-list 11 years ago.

Just gave him some doggy CBD, really hope it helps.

Wife put it perfectly that it is very similar to having a very needy infant that you just hope will take a nap so you can get a moment to think/take care of stuff.

If I ever get dementia I'm going to Canada to get MAID. I couldn't put my family through something like this.

Sea Speed said:

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Just gave him some doggy CBD, really hope it helps.

Wife put it perfectly that it is very similar to having a very needy infant that you just hope will take a nap so you can get a moment to think/take care of stuff.

If I ever get dementia I'm going to Canada to get MAID. I couldn't put my family through something like this.

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If you get dementia you probably won't have the foresight or awareness to go to Canada to get MAID. That's the problem with dementia.

That's what the living will is for

It had the same effect on my dog. Just made everything worse.

Yes sir. Have had more than a couple of vets tell me the same. Bad drug that is prescribed way to often now.

Sea Speed said:

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I asked about this yesterday and she said from the vets she has talked with, they have seen very little success with it.

Good call on CBD pills.

Another thing, my wife lets him sleep on the bed when I am offshore and I don't allow him to. Been arguing for no dogs in the bed my whole marriage, but that's neither here nor there. At night when we let him on the bed he seems to chill out, at least he did two nights ago, although he was still a little restless and woke me up a bunch. Last night though with the gabapentin he zonked out on the bed all night. Tried to have him sleep on the floor and he was pacing and barking. Ugh, guess my bed got a little smaller.

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I get it....but if that helps him settle and create enough peace for yall to sleep...I'd let it slide. All 6 of ours sleep with us. We get 3, kids get 1 and 2 for each of their own beds. LOL.

They aren't on this planet with us long, and you can go back to the "no dog on bed" rule on the next one.

Oh yea, it's already gone. He seems to chill out when sitting on the couch or bed with any member of the family so that's our way through for now.

My dog had doggy dementia. We put him on some prescription medication for dementia and it probably gave him another year of happy life.

You may give the vet school folks involved with this study a call about it. A&M and a couple other schools have been conducting the Dog Aging Project for awhile.

I have terrible neuropathy in my feet. I was prescribed Gabapentin. Like you - I had hallucinations and terrible thoughts. I had to stop it. I warn any of my friends that get prescribed it and their spouses too.

So sorry about you Pup Seaspeed! We went through exactly what you're describing during Covid. Our old dog would constantly pant and pace the floor back and forth all day. He was exhausted and so were we. Hope the meds help!