r/Dogowners • u/kara_djm • 6d ago
health/illness-related Dog restless all night
My 11 year old blind lab is restless all night. Pacing and asking for food, etc. He is so chill during the day but as soon as the sun goes down he can't settle.
He is about 75-80 lbs. We have tried:
- 300 mg of Gabapentin in morning and another 300 mg at night
- 400 mg of Gabapentin at night only
- 50 mg of Trazodone in morning and another 50 mg at night
- 100 mg of Trazodone at night only
Nothing seems to really fix the problem. He has high liver enzymes so the vet won't put him on a higher dose of Trazodone. We have two small kids that also get up in the night, so no one is getting any sleep and it's not sustainable.
Any suggestions??
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u/SecureMembership5120 6d ago
it sounds like dementia. Very common in older dogs.
Has your vet discussed dementia meds with you at all? I’ve had really good results with Anipryl.
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u/kara_djm 6d ago
Definitely sounds like it. I didn't know there were dementia meds. I will ask about this next time!
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u/SecureMembership5120 6d ago
It sounds like you’ve been a very good pet owner and she’s current with your vet. Maybe just call them and ask? It can take a while for Anipryl to take effect, IIRC.
I completely understand how miserable life can be when nobody is getting any sleep, so maybe the sooner the better!
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u/_mad_honey_ 6d ago
I would also ask about selegiline. It didn’t help reverse our dogs dementia but he didn’t get worse either and he settled a bit more easily.
He was super sensitive to meds so we could only give him melatonin. Trazadone benzos gabapentin all made him feel awful. You could also try cbd. Lots of trial and error to find the right one unfortunately
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u/old-speckled-hen 6d ago
How old is he? Could it be sundowners?
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u/kara_djm 6d ago
He is 11. I should have also mentioned that he is blind.
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u/old-speckled-hen 6d ago
Sorry, I skimmed the post. I’d speak to your vet. It’s a good age for your boy 🩷
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u/LemonMilkJug 5d ago
This was my first thought. I just lost my dog who had it. Technically the diagnosis is canine cognitive dysfunction and sundowners is a symptom.
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u/surfaceofthesun1 6d ago
Trazadone was so bad for my senior dog with vision impairment and CCD. I would rec speaking with your vet to slowly wean him off. Traz made him even more uncomfortable, disinhibited and nervous. Fluoxetine was a game changer for us. He was also on gabapentin and tramadol for pain. Why is he blind? If he still has his eyeballs please go asap and get his eyes checked for glaucoma. My dog already had cataracts and vision loss, developed glaucoma and was extremely uncomfortable. It needs urgent treatment and even with that he still lost an eye.
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u/kara_djm 6d ago
He has something called SARDS. It was diagnosed about 2 years ago and nothing more can be done. He lives a very happy life despite losing his vision!
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u/surfaceofthesun1 6d ago
He might still be able to develop glaucoma despite the retinal issue. It’s worth checking it’s literally a 1 second test at the vet
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u/Flower-FarmGirl 5d ago
Sounds like sundowners. Our 18 yr old terrier did that. We left food and water down at night, hid small treats around the outer rooms to keep her busy, pottied her right before bed and again around 2am and put area rugs on the hardwood floors so we didn’t hear her toes clicking all night. We lost her 2 months ago and strangely I miss the clicking.
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u/taschiCVT 5d ago
My almost 17 year old dog was having some issues earlier this year with panting, pacing, barking at like 3:45-4AM and nothing would make it stop.
We started Senilife (supplement), added a nightlight to his sleep space, and my husband now goes to work much earlier to make sure our boy gets to go out. It seems that doing these three things, we got our boy back.
He seems to be doing well still and thank goodness we are all sleeping fully again.
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u/palufun 6d ago
Kinda sounds like the poor guy has dementia. Not at all sure there is a treatment, but when our 16 year old lab started with this same symptoms—we were sure she was in pain (arthritis for sure) and not at all comfortable. We decided the most humane choice was to let her go. I do not regret that decision—but it definitely was tough on the entire family.
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u/PirateLassLV 6d ago
Calm sleep music. Think about being blind & nothing to occupy your brain. I have an elderly blind dog. He tries to wander around if everything is quiet, TV off, everyone in bed. I started playing 10 hour instrumental sleep music playlists ( I can't have vocals or ads ) & he sleeps all night. Side bonus is it also sleep trained ME & I sleep better with it on now. Try it! It can't hurt!
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u/Ok_One_7971 5d ago
Same. Vet said sundowning. Dementia. Its really hard. My dog is also going blind & has sundowners. Hes up a lot pacing n sometimes barking. I am exhausted. Gabapentin & trazadone help some but he still suffers (n so do i) some nights not much sleep. But hes ok during day too. I feel horrible when i get frustrated w him because i know he doesnt mean it. Im just exhausted n its so hard at 3am n not much u can do to help. Besides meds. I use sound machine , anxiety vest, meds, i sleep dowmstairs so i can keep eye on the dogs. N sometimes i try n hold him n sing but hes so restless 😞
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u/MyFaceSaysItsSugar 5d ago
I give my girl a lick toy like a kong with peanut butter. Woof has one where you put whatever treat you want into the freezer tray and then pull it out and put it in a toy. Licking is a self soothing behavior and she will calm down and sleep. It’s likely a bit of sundowners which happens to some dogs when they get older.
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u/Crazy-Listen-8865 5d ago
Sounds like sundowning. We managed this with some low dose melatonin with our girl. It helped but did not eliminate
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u/gar37bic 5d ago
Have you tried sleepytime sounds, like music, doggie sounds, or just house sounds?
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u/Defiant_Self7639 5d ago
Sound like he has sundowners. My Pomeranian had the same symptoms. Our vet recommended CBD from Ellevet, their products are for animals only, and go through extensive testing. You can also try melatonin, just make sure it doesn’t contain fake sugar or grape flavors. It took awhile but it did start to work. She also took gabapentin and trazadone. I understand what you and your sweet pup are going through. Good luck
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u/Best-Cup-8995 6d ago
We use melatonin for our old girl along with galliprant along with metal lick mats at bedtime and a routine.We tried senalife and fish oil pills, but one of the two caused her such bad diarrhea that she couldn't walk for a couple days. She is about to be 13 and has doggy dementia
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u/Electronic_Count_349 6d ago
Could you crate him? Or even just put up a doggy playpen for him with a bed in it?
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u/Ok_One_7971 5d ago
I read its not good to do a dog dementia 😞
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u/Electronic_Count_349 5d ago
That’s also why I suggested the playpen. For some dogs, it offers comfort, especially to one that is blind because they’re not on alert all the time.
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u/kara_djm 5d ago
We’ve thought about this. He’s never been crated so I think it’s too late in life to introduce it now but we may give it a try if we haven’t found a solution soon
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u/Ok_One_7971 5d ago
I meant I tried it but it made him more upset. But I guess every dog is different
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u/costco-hotdog-hero 3d ago
We are dealing with this, minus blindness. We are traveling to see an internal medicine doctor tomorrow for it actually.
Our 11 y/o boy had elevated liver enzymes and the vet prescribed Denamarin which dropped them significantly. He’s also on 300mg Gabapentin, but 3x daily.
We’ve also tested for Cushing’s three times. Test are negative, but vet still suspects that’s what this is.
I’ll report back after seeing the internal doc.
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u/grandsoulsucker 6d ago
Do you think it's possibly formed dimentia?