So forget about the case of sentience vs consciousness.
What about the cases of sentient beings being unconscious?
Confused yet?
If bogged down, remember that you are conscious and sentient.
And in the end: Relationships are all that matter.
Such sentience without consciousness, I admit, we cannot imagine: not because it never occurs in us, but because, when it does, we describe ourselves as being ‘unconscious’. And rightly. The fact that animals react to pain much as we do is, of course, no proof that they are conscious; for we may also so react under chloroform, and even answer questions while asleep. How far up the scale such unconscious sentience may extend, I will not even guess.
-C.S. Lewis, The Problem Of Pain (Amazon)