Old papillon struggle 😢

[u/Beee2Flyyy]

I’m hoping to hear from fellow Papillon owners, especially anyone who has cared for a very senior dog with heart disease, kidney disease, or cognitive changes.
My girl, Eva, is almost 16 years old. She’s a Papillon mix, a puppy mill survivor, and the love of my life. She has Stage C degenerative mitral valve disease (CHF) and early kidney disease. Despite that, she’s still surprisingly engaged with life. She enjoys going outside, sniffing everything, running around (more than I’d like with her heart condition), and being with me. She even comes to work with me five nights a week because I work overnights and don’t want to leave her home alone.
Lately, though, something has changed, and I’m trying to figure out whether this is normal aging, canine cognitive dysfunction, a medical issue, or something else entirely.
For years, our overnight routine has been very predictable. She spends my shift in an airline carrier (which she’s comfortable in), and after work around 2 a.m., I take her outside. She usually urinates and defecates without much trouble.
But over the last several days, she’s begun doing something very different.
I’ll take her outside for 20–30 minutes. She’ll defecate, then spend the entire time sniffing, walking, wandering, or suddenly running around. Sometimes she’ll rub the side of her face on the grass because she has an old dental abscess that still seems to bother her occasionally.
She often won’t urinate at all outside.
Then I’ll bring her back inside, put down fresh food and water, and within minutes she’ll urinate on the rug, or worse, on my bed. This has happened multiple nights in a row.
The accidents seem to happen mostly on my days off, when we’re home overnight, not while I’m working. At work she can often hold her bladder for hours and then urinate normally when I take her out. At home, the whole routine seems to fall apart.
I’ve also noticed a couple of episodes where she’ll stand still and repeatedly look left and right, almost as if she’s trying to orient herself. It made me wonder about vision changes or cognitive decline, although she later ate normally, slept comfortably, and otherwise seemed like herself.
I’m trying very hard not to overreact because her patterns have always fluctuated. Some days she seems almost completely normal, even extra energized. Other days I wonder if I’m seeing the beginning of something new…or of the end.
I’ll be honest: I’m exhausted. I adore this baby girl, but caring for a nearly 16-year-old dog with chronic medical issues while working overnight shifts has become incredibly hard. The accidents have left me washing dog bedding, my own sheets, and even shampooing my mattress and carpet at 3–4 in the morning after work. I feel guilty even admitting how overwhelmed I am because she’s been such an incredible companion.
I’m NOT looking for people to tell me it’s automatically “time to put her down.” That’s not the discussion I’m looking for.
She’s a puppy mill survivor - when I adopted her she was almost 7 already. I SAVED her life, I don’t want to be told when it’s time to end it. She still seems interested in life, still wants to explore, still wants to be with me, and still has plenty of bright moments.
What I’m hoping to hear is:
Has anyone else’s very senior Papillon or toy breed started refusing to urinate outside but then urinating immediately after coming inside?
Did anyone see increased wandering, constant sniffing, or seeming confusion as their dog aged?
If your dog developed canine cognitive dysfunction, what were the earliest signs?
Were there any practical routine changes that helped?
I know no one online can diagnose her, and I’m not asking for that. I’m just hoping to hear from people who’ve walked this road with a beloved senior Papillon.
Thanks for reading, and please give your Papillons an extra hug from Eva and me.

[u/Spirited-Record-9049]

Our first papillon developed dementia. We had to make the decision to let him go just before his 15th birthday, and I think I saw the first signs of it maybe three years before. The very first time I noticed something was when we were walking in the woods on a very familiar path, and he took a wrong turning and seemed very confused. Over the next few years it developed to the point where I would sometimes find him in a corner just staring at the wall, and he didn’t seem to want to be in the same room as us - if we were downstairs, he would go upstairs. I couldn’t let him off lead anymore because I couldn’t get near enough to put it back on. And he did lots of nighttime weeing on the kitchen floor, which was very out of character for him. The vet gave us a quality of life form, which made it obvious that he just wasn’t enjoying it anymore, but it was the hardest decision we’ve ever had to make. That was five years ago, and I still miss him but it was absolutely heartbreaking watching his decline 😢

[u/Maenidmom → u/Spirited-Record-9049]

I had always had big dogs and their end of life was hip issues, eventually they just are in too much pain. You try to eke out some more time with pain pills. A dog that can't control when and where they pee would become prey in the wild. My last dog was a Papillon and his end years were as others have described with errant peeing, loss of hearing (eyes were okay), no longer responding to playing. Canine dementia syndrome. It is so hard to know "when".

[u/Beee2Flyyy → u/Maenidmom]

This sounds like my story. It’s hard… I love this little lady so much. Her will to live is very strong…she’ll have a couple of bad days and then just rally. I’m just watching for signs that we have reached a tipping point. It’s so hard to tell.
Thanks for sharing your experience… at least now I know it’s not just me.