Can pugs suffer from night/sleep terrors?

Bud has got me worried. He'll be 12 years old in about a week and he's lost control of his bowels, for the most part, over the last few months. Sometimes he makes it outside, sometimes not. He mainly has a problem overnight. Nothing like waking up to poop in the bed! That's not even that big of a deal to me, I can deal with cleaning it up but the bigger problem is that he has started screaming during the night. Literally SCREAMS in his sleep. Scares the bejeezus out of me every time and usually the other pugs too (my husband sleeps like the dead! ). He's on phenobarbitol for epilepsy but I'm not convinced that these screams are due to seizures. When I wake up, he's fine. I've made an appointment with the vet for Monday to do some bloodwork & get his take on things. I'm just wondering if anyone else has ever experienced anything like this?

oh no. I hope its nothing serious. I dont have any advice to give, phoebe sometimes wimpers in her sleep....more like a tiny little bark. im a very light sleeper so it does wake me up sometimes. sometimes when she does this little wimper she kicks too.

I'm so sorry Brenda! I haven't experienced anything like this, but I wonder if it has anything to do with canine senility? I know Blanche is right up on this and the best way to manage it, if the night terrors are part of it. A ton of good thoughts for you both.

Aussie Witch wrote:I haven't experienced anything like this, but I wonder if it has anything to do with canine senility?

You may be onto something there, Rona. I did some reading on canine cognitive dysfunction this morning & was thinking that might be the problem. We'll see what the vet has to say.

Sorry that sweet Bud is having problems. My first thought would be dementia or something like that as well. I still wonder if Chyna doesn't have a bit of that going on or whether she has just decided to be more of a beotch just because she can!

Depending on what vet finds, consider adding melatonin as a supplement at night. We currently have a foster that had some nightmare issues (not every night but she was cat-like, waking up around 1 am and wanting to wander around, not quite comfortable). We started her on melatonin and its made her nights (and mine!) much more restful (not seeing the nightmares so either she's moving past them or the melatonin is making the sleep more restful).

We also give it to Vince (1 mg pill) at night - he's on pheno for seizures too. When researching it to see if any complications (once winter started he started waking up way too early) with his meds and found out its often used alongside pheno to help with seizure control.

lisamak wrote:We also give it to Vince (1 mg pill) at night - he's on pheno for seizures too. When researching it to see if any complications (once winter started he started waking up way too early) with his meds and found out its often used alongside pheno to help with seizure control.

Thanks for that info. Lisa! I will definitely look into it.

I think they can.

Toddy will occasionally wake up from a deep sleep (usually there is no indication that he is dreaming by noises or movement and he is often quite vocal in his sleep) and he will scream in what sounds like total terror and immediately rush at Snifter as if it is somehow Snifter's fault. This has only ever happened during the day or evening whilst we are still awake and he is in the room with us, which is good because I can immediately calm him down and stop him from harrying poor Snifter who has usually been rudely awakened by this.