Six months ago, Beverley Whitby’s beloved border collie Jake started behaving oddly. He would walk into a room and stand staring at the wall looking bemused for a few seconds.

Then he’d squeeze behind tables and chairs and forget how to get back out. He also started panting excessively and became uncharacteristically clingy.

Beverley and her husband, Derek, both 45, put their pet’s eccentric behaviour down to a side-effect of the medicine he’d been taking for arthritis in his back.

They were horrified when the vet revealed the true cause: dementia.

‘I never even knew animals could be affected by such a thing,’ says Beverley, a former hotel worker. ‘We looked into it on the internet and discovered that just like humans, dogs’ brains can degenerate as they get older, displaying signs of dementia. I was devastated.’

Far from being confined to humans, it turns out this degenerative brain disease is startlingly common among animals.

Experts say that 68 per cent of dogs aged between 15 and 16 and 28 per cent of dogs aged between 11 and 12 will show some signs of cognitive decline.

Meanwhile, in a study by the University of Edinburgh, a researcher estimated that a third of cats aged between 11 to 14 and 50 per cent of cats aged over 15 are suffering the same fate.

‘I don’t think people realise how serious the problem is,’ says Professor Holger Volk, from the Royal Veterinary College in London. ‘Though dementia in dogs is not 100 per cent the same as in humans, there are similarities. Obviously you can’t tell if a dog is having problems recalling stories or names and faces, but dogs’ brains can develop plaques

[a protein called beta-amyloid] just like those seen in human Alzheimer’s sufferers.’

‘This results in signs of dementia, which can include the dog walking into a room and appearing not to know where he is or staring at a space on the wall.’

‘It appears lost or confused in familiar surroundings, such as the house or garden, and gets ‘stuck’ in corners or under furniture. It can forget previously learned behaviours and might have more ‘accidents’ within the home.’

‘Cats, meanwhile, may begin wailing and miaowing frequently. The pet will wake more in the night and perhaps most upsettingly for the owners, it may no longer respond to verbal cues or their name and won’t recognise a familiar face.’

Professor Volk adds: ‘Other animals may also be affected by dementia — it’s simply that we spend more time with cats and dogs, so we are more aware of any cognitive decline.’

‘Being told Jake has dementia is like being told a member of your family has it. It makes me well up just to think about what’s going to happen to him.’

‘Jake has been the most wonderful, loyal and faithful dog you could wish for. My three children, aged 17 to 25, absolutely love him, as does my husband. But I’m his favourite. He always comes to me over everyone else.’

‘The vet hasn’t given us a limit on how long he’s got. I’m too upset to think about the prognosis.’

Beverley noticed Jake’s decline over several weeks.

‘He would stand in a corner and stare at the wall for 15 to 20 seconds, which he’s never done before,’ she says.

‘He’d try to get into awkward tight spaces. He’s never been one for climbing, but now, when my eldest son is sitting on the sofa, Jake will climb on to his knee and shoulders.’

When the couple took Jake to the vet for his arthritis in August, they mentioned the uncharacteristic behaviour.

‘The vet said it sounded like dementia, which was a surprise,’ says Beverley. ‘I never even knew animals could get it. Just like with a human, we seem to be losing Jake’s personality. He’s 14 and the vet has said on the last couple of visits that he’s reached a good age for a dog.’

What’s worse, as with dementia in humans, no one can say what causes the condition in animals, but a modern sedentary lifestyle and junk diets might be to blame — though Beverley says this is not the case with Jake.

Professor Volk says: ‘It could be that every animal will suffer from the same cognitive decline if it gets old enough.’

cat with dementia

‘He seems to forget where he is and can’t figure out how to get around furniture’

Earlier this year, children’s book publisher Sophia Ludbrook-Miles, 30, and her company secretary husband Alex, 27, noticed their cat, Jonny, was behaving strangely.

‘His personality seems to change and he’ll go from his usual loving and affectionate self to wailing in the corner of a room. We’ll pick him up and cuddle him, which seems to soothe him, but five minutes later he’s wailing again and it’s upsetting to see him so distressed. We don’t know how old he is as he’s a rescue cat, but the vet estimates him to be 12 years old — cats can live up to around 20.’

‘The vet has put him on medication, which they say will help his brain and make him more aware. I’d never heard of dementia in pets, but I suppose it stands to reason that if humans can get it, why shouldn’t animals?’

‘He’s as senile as ever, but we don’t think he’s unhappy,‘ says Sophia. ‘It’s a heartbreaking condition — for both pet and owner.’

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Source: DailyMail.co.uk