Melatonin

We aren't back to normal but we are definitely chill.  After several tries at finding a medication that would help Jessie to sleep or at least relax through the night we have found the answer.  We first tried Clomicalm, commonly used for separation anxiety or depression.  But it basically put Jessie into a drug induced coma, not good.  Next we tried Benadryl, same result pretty much, she was in a state of drowsy, too groggy.    So for a week I did hours of research, site after site, story after story until I landed on Melatonin.

Melatonin for Canine Dementia  This is a great article.

So I went back to my vet; Jessie had a few more test done and we spoke about Melatonin.  He agreed that Melatonin would be a sensible next attempt at calming Jessie's nighttime pacing.  My vet told me to get 3mg Melatonin at the drugstore.  Melatonin is commonly used by humans as a natural sleep-aid.  When used in dogs it does not cause a drowsiness but instead it can induce a calming sensation.  Many people use it for separation anxiety, aggression and other behavior issues.

What I also found out that I did not know before is that many people are getting really great results with Melatonin and Epilepsy and nighttime seizures.   I will do further research into this in regards to epilepsy seeing that Luke is epileptic.

As far as the Melatonin for Jessie and her Dementia, it is helping.  She is still active at night but not nearly to the degree that she was.  It helps to keep her calm in the evening, she rarely startles when touched which is really nice, poor little girl use to jump out of her skin.  She seems to be getting more sleep which is allowing her to be more herself during the day.   So far I'm very happy with the results we are seeing.  There isn't a whole lot that you can do for dementia, this is definitely helping us.