Aging is hard. It impacts vision, audition and mobility, creating ever steeper uphill battles for many senior dogs and cats in their later days.
As age advances, cognitive and behavioral status may likewise decline. 1 These dogs exhibiting disorientation, diminished activity, reduced social interactions, sleeping changes, growing anxiety or aggression, and new onset house soiling may be facing cognitive dysfunction syndrome (CDS). 2
CDS remains a diagnosis of exclusion because many causes of organ and systemic dysfunction can mimic it. Most notably, the common geriatric afflictions of spinal pain and compressive myelopathy often go unrecognized or misinterpreted. 3 Taking the time to gently palpate the myofascia and skeletal components associated with the back and neck can give vital differential diagnostic information about the nature and location of back or neck pain without having to force the neck or back into uncomfortable and unnatural ranges of motion.
Simply evaluating reflexes aids in the determination of the level of neurological embarrassment, i.e., whether the cause is an upper or lower motor neuron lesion, based on the presence, degree or absence of crossed extensor reflexes, anal tone, conscious proprioception and muscle tone.
Furthermore, many common geriatric afflictions, such as neoplasia, infections, immune-mediated illness, organ dysfunction and endocrinopathy, can change the way a dog or cat behaves, as can pain. 4 Therefore, ruling out...
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