Pacing at night

Beagleboy8

Hello,

We have an 8 year old beagle. Suddenly he has started pacing at night to the point that we cannot get any sleep at all. He claws his way into closets and buries himself in small spots for a minute or two and then moves to a different location. He puts his paws up on our bed and wimpers and wines and has now started to bark. We take him out for walks at 2 or 3 in the morning, bring him back in and he still does it. We makes sure he goes to the bathroom during the walks and that doesn't seem to be the issue. We have 4, 5 and 6 year old children and basically are functioning on no sleep from the dog. We thought perhaps pain, but he seems fine all day long until somewhere around 11:30 at night til about 4:30 am. If we put him in a seperate room with a door and his bed, he barks til we let him out. There is no place to go to get sleep.

Does anyone have experience with this? He has been to the vet and had an infection in his anal glands that he is now being treated for, but has been on antibiotics for 5 days now. This behavior was occuring before the infection.

Thanks!

nando

Ok firstly, please go back to your vet and discuss all of this with them.

How long has this been going on? A couple of week, months? Have you noticed any other changes - other little odd things he has started doing, sleeping more in the day, interacting differently with you?

When I read this I immediately thought of two things. One was anal glands. You say this began before the infection but do you really know when the infection began? Anal gland problems are generally an ongoing, long-term, recurring problem - so the likelyhood is that he didn't just suddenly develop irritation last week. Anal gland problems are irritating and painful and cause discomfort and a lot of agitation.

The other thing I though of is because these symptoms are kind of classic for a mental condition of older dogs called Cognitive Dysfunction Syndrome, which is a lot like a canine version of Alzheimers. However you would need your vet to rule out any physical problems or possible causes of pain and do a further assessment of the dog to investigate if this could be the problem. If it is the case then there are drugs to alleviate some of the symptoms and other things you can do to help the situation, but it is definitely a tough disease to deal with.

Arrange an appointment for further assessment with your vet soon. Good luck and hopefully you will get some sleep.

peasant

All that Nando said ...

and maybe something simple: has he got access to water during the night?

He might just be thirsty on top of everything else.

Jules

Or simply it could be he can not get comfortable, due to arthritis, maybe a possibility.. as some one said to me... Common things are common. If a dog or cat sneezes alot well he prolly has a cold! I hope the vet has ruled this out! arthritis that is not a cold!

C.D.S effects alot fo dogs and people just disreguard it. As nando says it is a very difficult thing to deal with. Maybe your vet can help with some medications! best of luck