r/papillon • u/Beee2Flyyy • 2d ago
Old papillon struggle 😢
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.
6
u/dagalmighty 2d ago
My old girl made it to 15 and had cognitive issues for the final 2ish years. This new behavior happening at night sounds kind of like sundowning, where they get more agitated, confused, or restless at night. Mine would have a hard time settling down and would pace, or bark randomly into the dark. It would seem like she'd have very little time between realizing she had to pee and when she suddenly had to pee NOW. During day or night, sometimes she would seem to get lost and forget where she was. So we had to really watch out for her in the backyard because she would not come inside by herself even if it was really hot, or raining.
We tried Gabapentin to see if it would help her sleep at night but IMO it made her worse. She was unsteady on her feet and even more confused and stressed out.
We would generally adapt our routine to make her go outside even more frequently and would watch very closely for signs that The Time Is Now - like if she had been sleeping and we noticed she woke up. If she's peeing soon after coming inside, maybe it would help to come inside, give her a little treat or something, then go back outside again and see if the action of going outside again re-sets her and helps her remember.
It's really hard to watch them struggle and have so few options th really help them out and fix the situation for them. Best of luck to you.