Our dog had lymphoma. I am considering getting another dog to take her mind off of the situation. any suggestions on what to do to help her. she is so upset i have never seen her like this before.
was considering calling her doctor to maybe get an anxiety medicine for her.
thank
Dementia is progressive in nature. You don't know how fast it will progress. Caring for a dementia patient can be extremely time consuming and having to care for a pet on top of it is often too much.
My loved one had a cat when she got dementia. She loved the cat, but became obsessed with it. It became unhealthy and she grew to have extreme anxiety over the cat and trying to ensure the cat was safe. This was very stressful on the cat. Eventually, I had to return the cat to the no kill agency she adopted it from.
I'm sure there are other opinions among the posters on this site, but when providing care for loved ones with dementia, I would be extremely wary of adding more responsibilities. I might read here about some of the issues that arise with dementia patients, such as they may not sleep at night and you have to figure a way to keep them safe, they may become agitated, argue, fight, resist care, damage property, wander, etc. When you are spending your time handling these kinds of issues, walking a pet, may not be a priority. I also think it's unfair to expose a pet to that kind of behavior.
I still really miss my dog who died three years ago, by the way, and I don't suppose I'd be any more proportionate about it if I had dementia. All pets are special, but some are even more special than others. Your poor mother - and poor you. Very upsetting.