- Alzheimer's disease
- Parkinson's disease
- Cushing's disease
Signs that Your Dog Suffers from Dementia
Dogs suffering from dementia may display an unusual behavior. For instance, they may start sleeping during the day and staying awake during the night. Besides the sleep irregularities, your dog may also experience:
- Cognitive dysfunction syndrome
- Anxiousness
- Loss of appetite
In addition, your dog may not respond anymore to vocal commands. In this situation you need to make sure that he still hears, as hearing loss is a frequent problem in a senior dog. Barking for no reason, especially at night, may also indicate dog dementia. Once the veterinarian has analyzed the symptoms and confirmed the diagnosis, a treatment needs to be followed.
How Can Anipryl Help?
The treatment with Anipryl can start right away, since there are no lab tests required. Anipryl is a new medication that provided promising results in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. However, the effectiveness is not always the same. In some dogs with cognitive dysfunction syndrome it proved to be very efficient, while in others there were no dramatic changes.
What makes Anipryl special is that it is the only drug approved for the treatment of cognitive dysfunction syndrome. It's also the first and only product that can be used for managing pituitary-dependent hyperadrenocorticism. The active substances work at hypothalamic-pituitary level and regulate the amount of dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter than influences both the mood and the cognitive functions, once it activates the dopamine receptors in the dog brain. Adrenal insufficiency or toxicity cannot occur, and this is yet another reason why Anipryl is effective.
Anipryl is available in more than one dosage size, and can be mixed with food. Depending on the medical problem that needs to be treated, the dosage varies between 0.5mg/kg - for cognitive dysfunction syndrome - and 1mg/kg for pituitary-dependent hyperadrenocorticism, given once daily.
Side Effects of Anipryl
Regardless of the medication you administer to your dog, you need to be aware of the possible side effects. In the case of Anipryl, the side effects may include:
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Hyperactivity
- Restlessness
- Anorexia
- Seizure
- Staggering
- Lethargy
If any of these adverse reactions is noticed, you should talk to the veterinarian in order to have the dosage lowered. An alternative to decreasing the dose is to use other medication that has similar effects, but not so serious adverse reactions.