Following our Request

hrdrsr93

Mom moved in Sept 8th, she has moderate dementia, almost no short term memory, long term is pretty good, last 11 years or so are fuzzy. She was mild to moderate until she got a UTI and low sodium and was hospitalized for 3 weeks, now she's fully moderate. It's difficult because she can remember how to use the chair to get up the stairs (only took her a week to figure that out) but CANNOT remember NOT to feed our dog. We spend a lot of money on her food due to her sensitive tummy and she is 13 yes. She is not used to people food. Mom has fed her dogs whatever she wanted to her whole life. Our dog is not hers and is not like hers. Hubby is at his wits end about this and I don't know what to do. We have signs all over the house telling her not to feed the dog and yet she persists on doing it only to have no recollection of it!

Merla

wow sounds frustrating. Does she feed the dog when she is eating her own meals? If so, maybe the solution is to remove the dog from where she eats while she is eating. If there is any way to reduce her opportunity to feed the dog then I would go this route Vs trying to get her to remember not to feed the dog.

terei

You are not going to convince her not to feed the dog. That means you have to have to dog elsewhere when she has food + try to keep the separated as much as possible. Notes + entreaties are not going to work, as you can see.

My mother was the same way with her min poodle. She fed it constantly to the point we had to rehome it so it could lose some weight before she killed it with overfeeding.

AmandaF

Sounds very upsetting and I'll just echo what others have said - in my experience, no amount of requests or reminders will get her to stop feeding the dog. You'll just have to monitor the situation really closely. When my mom still lived at home, she fed her own dog constantly and ended up making her really sick. My dad tried everything he could think of to get her to stop but nothing worked. Sorry and I hope you find a solution.

M1

we had that experience as well, my partner over fed our cats constantly. Nothing worked to stop her. The last time she gave the two outdoor kitties 24 cans of food in three days. After she threatened me with a knife because I wouldn’t let her use the truck to go get more, she ended up hospitalized and then in memory care.