Diagnosis
Do you recognize the symptoms on the previous page, and do you want to know if your dog or cat has CDS? The only way to be 100% sure that your pet has dementia is to put the brain tissue under a microscope. Unfortunately, this is not possible with a live animal, so the vet will have to diagnose the pet differently.
The first step is to rule out other age-related diseases that could explain the symptoms. The vet does this, for example, by doing a physical and neurological examination, by examining the blood and urine of your four-legged friend, or by taking an MRI scan, or by means of an epidural. When all the other causes have been ruled out, the vet can come to a so-called probability diagnosis of dementia by combining the symptoms.
And then? Can you do something about it then? You will read it on the next page.