Old Dog won't Sleep at Night

[deepsilver]

My 18 year old cockapoo won't sleep at night.  He sleeps during the day when we are not home and during the night he is restless.  He is up every hour seeking activity and pees on the floor when he doesn't find any.  This is making his us crazy as his activity is keeping us awake.  Having him sleep in another room or outside is not an option as he has extreme seperation anxiety.  We've tried many options to make him not be so restless including taking him for walks at night to tire him out, giving him natural pet medications to relax him,  giving him up to 50mg of Benedryl (he's only 14lbs) and as far as having the vet prescribe a low dose of acepromazine to help sedate him at night and NOTHING works.  He countinues to be up at night pacing the house.  Please help, I'm beginning to lose my sanity due to lack of sleep.  

[pamnmerv66]

Hello there, I can totally sympathise with you as my 11 year old Dalmatian has most of the same problems.  She was diagnosed with a heart murmur at age 3 and there were no problems until April this year when she started panting constantly.  The vet x rayed her and she was diagnosed with water on the lungs,  pneumonia and her heart was extremely enlarged.  She was given heart meds, water tablets and tramadol and she hasn't slept at night for 69 days!! We are just so, so tired of this. I, too wonder if she is suffering from some sort of dementia. She paces all night, digs up the carpet-like she's burying a bone, wants out into the garden and once out there immediately wants back in. She's leaking urine all over the place and when she drinks water-she pukes it all back out.
If there is someone who can help, please, please help us.
Thanks, Pam

[Moksele]

It helps to read about other people experiencing this issue with their old dog. We love our 16 year old Dalmatian Pointer mix dearly and are desperately sleep deprived. She is almost deaf and almost blind and has some dementia. She cries and wakes us every night at 12 am to pee, at 2 am to pee, at 4 am to play, at 4:30 for no apparent reason, when we take her outside nothing happens. She just walks around, back and fourth in the yard. At 6 am she wants to fo for a walk....If we put her back in her bed too soon she will just cry again right away.....of course she can sleep all day, we have to go to work.  
She goes on a 90 minute walk each morning and I tried taking her on another longer walk at 10pm and again at 2 am. That helps her to fall asleep more easily but she still wakes us up on schedule about 2 hours later.
I tried sleeping in her pen with her and her sleeping in bed with me but that doesn't help her at all.
I tried lavender and camomile, calming essential oils, in her pen but it didn't really make difference.
She sleeps well during the day.

[JEDROX7]

Hello!!
That's what I think is going on with my Bichon. She is 13.

I'm so glad to have seen your post.

She is making my parents crazy.

I'm willing to have them try anything.

Thank you!!

Julie

[Laguangrl]

My 15+ year old chihuahua mix, bless her aging soul, has started being VERY restless at night--up and down, up and down. The first time was two nights ago and I was hoping it was just a phase (the moon, the alignment of the planets, something!) but last night the same thing. I give her tramadol for eye pain (this isn't new) and also Benadryl. Both used to help her sleep. Not now. I'm going to try her crate tonight. And yes, she has the backyard to pace in all day long, and we take short walks--she can't walk as far as before unless I had 4 hours to spare. I started thinking it was another stage of her dementia and it sure sounds like it from what I've read here. Thanks for all the posts!

[sugarbabies]

I have a 17 year old female maltese. she is blind and deaf my problem is she wont sleep through the nite my vet told me to give her melatonin 5mg that hasn't worked . what is the difference between melatonin mg and mcg?

[wailingseasiren]

My 16 year old dog is hard of hearing, blind, can no longer walk and is currently being fed by hand as he can do very little for himself now. He also wakes a lot in the night and is very unsettled between 9pm -1am. We have been sleep deprived for 2 years having to find out whether he needs toilet/food/water or just made comfortable. I bathed and blow dried him last night before our bed time at 9pm and for the 1st time in ages he slept until 1am and only had 2 toilet wakes during the night. I may try doing the same again tonight to see if this settles him, so I wondered if this may work for your cockapoo?