My Mom has Alzheimer's and we had to put our dog of 11 years down. She's been hysterical and crying. Any advice?

Calling Mom's doctor for some help coping with this huge loss and trauma is a good idea.

Many breeders have adult dogs that they would gladly send along to your home for some R & R, socialization, for a few weeks, and if it doesn't work out they can quickly come collect them....and also this could help see if your mom can be consoled by a different individual animal, or is she only pining for the one who's gone. I have experience with several breeders from whom we've adopted amazingly healthy well-behaved adult dogs. It has been a boon to our family as well as my parents who adore their grand-dogs.

I agree, it is up to you whether you want another dog. Yours Mums crying etc. might be part of Alzheimers, and it might be the fact that she loved that dog. Check with your doctor about it. All the best.

Check in your own mind: would *you* like to get another dog? If you would, great. If the truth is you'd really rather not, don't do it for your mother - look instead at the pet therapy options as AKD suggests.

I still really miss my dog who died three years ago, by the way, and I don't suppose I'd be any more proportionate about it if I had dementia. All pets are special, but some are even more special than others. Your poor mother - and poor you. Very upsetting.

Calling the doctor is a good idea. A few days of an anti-anxiety med may help. Is there a way that you could have a dog visit your mom or take her to visit a dog? Many areas have therapy dog organizations where people bring well trained dogs to visit in hospitals and care facilities and maybe they would bring a dog to your mom's home. A visiting dog might help you to determine whether mom would even want another dog, or would only want her old dog, the one who died. This might help you decide whether to get another dog.

Hard call. My mother doesn't deal with dementia just NPD but she LOVES her 2 little dogs. They are sweet, I also like them, I also clean up after them every day and make sure they get outside, stay safe and are maintained along with everything else I do.Mom's dogs are good for her emotional wellbeing at present,this is my situation. Everybody's situation is unique.Give it some time.Don't make a rushed decision.Just see how your mom does over the next few days and reevaluate the situation.

I would hesitate to get another pet if your mom has dementia. Providing care for a pet is huge responsibility and unless you are willing to take over all care of dog if the need arises, I would hesitate.

Dementia is progressive in nature. You don't know how fast it will progress. Caring for a dementia patient can be extremely time consuming and having to care for a pet on top of it is often too much.

My loved one had a cat when she got dementia. She loved the cat, but became obsessed with it. It became unhealthy and she grew to have extreme anxiety over the cat and trying to ensure the cat was safe. This was very stressful on the cat. Eventually, I had to return the cat to the no kill agency she adopted it from.

I'm sure there are other opinions among the posters on this site, but when providing care for loved ones with dementia, I would be extremely wary of adding more responsibilities. I might read here about some of the issues that arise with dementia patients, such as they may not sleep at night and you have to figure a way to keep them safe, they may become agitated, argue, fight, resist care, damage property, wander, etc. When you are spending your time handling these kinds of issues, walking a pet, may not be a priority. I also think it's unfair to expose a pet to that kind of behavior.