What to do with early dementia patient who constantly wants to feed the dogs.

Question

G

gemini68 Asked June 2023

What to do with early dementia patient who constantly wants to feed the dogs.

Im the caregiver of an 89 yrs old early dementia patient who lives at home. She has very bad hearing,, won't wear her hearing aids,, also her eyesight is bad as well,, uses a magnifier to read. I relief her daughter on the weekends. She is showing OCD symptoms and has always been a control freak.. Of late, wants to feed the dogs all the time,, she'll ask me if the dogs have been fed a hundred times,, she will go ahead and feed them anyway, I have to tell her not to feed so many times, they're going to get sick,, she gets angry at me, and tells me, you don’t tell me what to do, I can do whatever I want, I have put big signs not to feed them once I know she fed them, she won't believe me please help!

Alzheimer's & Dementia Care Decisions Dementia Behaviors Pets

7 Answers

Most
Helpful Newest
First Oldest
First

Recent Questions

Related Questions

score 2 · Answer 1

If she's at this stage of forgetting about how often the dog has been fed, she's well past the "early dementia" phase of her journey. Lock up the dog food and anything else she has no business getting herself into, like chemicals and under the sink cleaning products, toothpaste, vitamins, medicines, Listerine, soaps, etc. Danger abounds in the home environment for an elder suffering from dementia.

Helpful Answer (2)

score 1 · Answer 2

Lock up the dog food, but then she's asking about it all the time? Accusing and demanding and all that.....

I guess sometimes we have to choose which version of hell we want to live with.

Helpful Answer (1)

score 2 · Answer 3

I also had this issue with my mother's cats. She would constantly open cans and leave them all over the place, it was crazy and made me upset. So, one morning I fed the kitties, and hid all the canned food where she can't get to it, or see it, bowls too.
The dry catfood stays out during the day for their snacking, then hidden at night. It has worked out fine, if she finds my hiding spot I just relocate.
Kitties are fine and she doesn't mess with it anymore, so now on to other focus things for her..

Helpful Answer (2)

score 2 · Answer 4

If there are problems with short term memory then she won't remember they have been fed.

Make a chart, calender, just an A4 paper, anything you can Tick. Monday ✅️, Tuesday ✅️ etc

Visual clues can work better than audio (talking), especialy if hearing impaired.

The dog food will need to be kept in a locked cupboard. Discuss this with your employer or the lady's next of kin (whoever hired you).

The lady's main concern is that her dogs are ok, have been fed, right? So lots of reassurance doggies are all good & then distraction & change of activity.

Helpful Answer (2)

score 0 · Answer 5

I would remove the dog food bowls and put the food away.

My mom would feed our dog under the table and when I said something about it, she denied it.

I would catch her hiding food in her walker seat to give to our dog in her room.

Naturally, the dog adored my mother!

It’s really difficult to break patterns. I was constantly monitoring what the dog was fed.

Good luck with handling this issue.

Helpful Answer (0)

score 2 · Answer 6

Lock the dog food up.

Helpful Answer (2)

score 0 · Answer 7

Nothing will change this. She has dementia. It will only get worse. I don’t see any solution, she’ll keep feeding them and they’ll get sick. But she still won’t understand.

Helpful Answer (0)

What to do with early dementia patient who constantly wants to feed the dogs.

7 Answers

Recent Questions

Popular Questions

Related Questions

Ask a Question