Have you used any cannabis products for your pets?
My 13-year-old hound Aggie Pocket has been showing the beginning signs of canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD), mainly restlessness and anxiety, diminished interest in food or water, barking on morning walks for no reason, and just having a look in her eyes that tells me she’s just not all there.
From AI:
Canine Cognitive Dysfunction (CCD), often called "doggy dementia," is a neurodegenerative disorder in older dogs that causes a decline in cognitive functions, similar to Alzheimer's disease in humans. It's characterized by changes in behavior, interactions, and sleep patterns, as well as memory loss and disorientation.
For years now, Aggie has thoroughly enjoyed lounging in the backyard, so much so that several times during the day I would go out and bring her in, only to have her demand to be let out again. A few weeks ago, this behavior changed and no sooner would I let her out or in than she would vocally inform me that she wasn’t happy with the situation. It caused a lot of getting up and down and these episodes would last for hours. She couldn’t settle. The episodes occurred most often in the evening, similar to sundowning associated with human dementia.
First I took her to the vet to address her beginning to bark consistently when I left her alone at night. The doc prescribed trazadone to deal with anxiety. Next we visited to address her restlessness and the doc prescribed xanax So I began trying out the medications and was not happy about how zonked out she was on the trazadone and concerned about using the xanax too often as she could build up a tolerance for it and need higher doses.
Tuesday a friend of mine, whose 13-year-old is exhibiting similar behaviors, drove over to the East Bay with me to the cannabis dispensary and we picked up bottles of 18:1 tinctures which my daughter had used to help her older dog with severe CCD.
Gave her her first doses 5 drops each on milkbones and it really seems to be working. She seems more like herself, has stopped pacing, and she’s more comfortable in her skin.
Was back at Marin Health hospital again yesterday, as a visitor this time, just a week after I was there for a colonoscopy, six weeks after an Emergency Room visit for diverticulosis, and two months after gall bladder surgery. The friend I went to see was the person who accompanied me to the ER and drove me last Friday for the colonoscopy. She was admitted for severe diverticulitis: at one point they floated the idea that she might be septic! She’ll be released this afternoon after two days on IV antibiotics. This morning when I called her she was tired, said she hadn’t been able to sleep because they kept coming into her room and waking her during the night.
She had been able to sleep undisturbed yesterday morning and late afternoon and we discussed why it is that overnight hospital staff seem more attentive in the night time hours then during waking time.
I checked out why it’s so difficult to sleep at night in the hospital and Harvard Health has some answers.
One study shows the top thing keeping patients awake is pain, followed by vital signs and tests, noise, and medications. Studies have also shown that hospital routines can disrupt patient sleep, and having a designated quiet time, where nonessential tasks are minimized and lights and noise are lowered, may help.
From a PBS article Why won’t hospitals let patients sleep?:
About half of all patients woken up for vitals checks probably don’t need to be, according to a 2013 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. The study suggests waking those patients may contribute to bad patient results and dissatisfaction, and could increase the odds of patients having to come back to the hospital.
Another study, published in 2010 in the Journal of Hospital Medicine, looked at efforts to encourage patient sleep — particularly by rescheduling activities, nighttime checks and overnight medication doses so as not to wake patients. That paper, co-written by Bartick, the Harvard professor, found a 49 percent drop in the number of patients who were given sedatives. That can have the added benefit of improving patient outcomes, since sedatives are associated with dangerous side effects such as falling or hospital delirium or confusion.
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A pair of U.K. scholars discovered the mislabeled document in Harvard Law School's digital archives. The university bought it for just $27.50 in 1946. It turned out to be an authentic copy dating to 1300.
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