Just in the past year, I have seen 2 Chihuahuas come into our home with canine cognitive dysfunction, CCD. And we have had 2 of our personal dogs have CCD issues as well. CCD is an invisible but devastating disease that affects the minds of older dogs, similar to dementia in humans. It is heartbreaking to know that we can heal a dog’s body, but not their mind. While there are things that we can do as owners & fospice parents to help dogs we love to live with CCD, it is not something we can cure. There are both environmental and medicinal therapies that can help as I have discussed in an earlier blog post if you want to check it out on our website, laberoflovepetrescue.com. But we can’t make it go away, and it will continue to worsen as the dog ages.
I have been thinking quite a bit lately about how we can prevent this terrible disease; is there something that we could do to stop it or slow it down from happening in the first place? Nothing has been proven to stop this disease from happening, but there has been some research into ways that may help to delay the devastating effects and give us longer with our beloved pets. I have started to incorporate some of the suggestions in this article already with our personal dogs and with our fospice dog, Chance.
Nicole Laber, Fospice Mom and Board Treasurer