[bonnie w]

Ruby my 9yr.? old has started to poop & pee while I am at work. There was an old dog that lived in my mobile prior to me moving in here Mar. I thought that it was just marking. Ruby has been fine up to a couple of months ago. I put it down to me being at work all evening so, I was trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. It was once in awhile and now it's every night when I get home, she has either peed on the carpet by my bed or pooped in the addition. I am just beside myself in wondering what to do. Shall I just live with it and put paper down consistently in one place? I could feed her in the morning only and limit the water while I am gone. I read on line that sometimes senior dogs who have been spayed and something to do with their hormone leve. Any suggestions?

 

[AmyB]

I'm not an expert, but I would first take her to the vet to be checked out. Spencer (age 12) started leaking urine at night about 6 months or so ago. I knew he wasn't doing it on purpose, as he would always wake me up when he had to go out, but I was starting to find him laying in puddles of urine, sleeping & seemingly unaware of what had happened. The vet couldn't find anything wrong with him to cause it & attributed it to aging & problems with the sphincter muscle. Spencer was prescribed Cystolomine which helps tighten the sphincter muscle, and it has done the trick. He gets a pill every evening & it's rare now that he leaks urine. I'm not sure about the pooping. I haven't had to deal with that -- yet!

 

[bonnie w]

Thank you AmyB for your comment. Ruby doesn't seem to leak urine. When she has pooped there isn't any urine with it -- hmm. Last night when I found the puddle of urine by my bed it took nearly 1/2 roll of paper towel to blot it up. I might add that when I got home last night Paisley (my newest hound) couldn't wait to get out the door and piddled right away, had a drink and went to piddle again. Five minutes later running around the yard she pooped. Great gal ! Ruby, on the other hand didn't go out into the yard at all for awhile. Guess not because her bladder must have been empty.

Sorry for going on & on and it's sort of gross talking about it. It is becoming a big problem for me. Ruby has had a couple of bladder infections in the past year which cleared up with antibiotics.

 

[Rusty Stickers Mom]

Is this only when you're gone from the house? If so, it's anxiety. My Maggie Mae (ATB) had that for the last year of her life. It was VERY hard to deal with, frustrating yet she couldn't help it. It was from age & anxiety. A horrible combination. She would pee and poop even if we left the house for 10 minutes. SO, for the last year of her life we limited our time from the house with no one home. One of us tried to stay behind with her. It really made our lives simplier. I know that isn't an option for everyone, almost no one.

We tried dozens of solutions until we found something that helped. We got her denim pants from PetSmart and the only pad that was absorbent enough to hold a full bladder of urine is POISE. It is in the pink package and reads

"Poise Pads, ULTRA"

They are the heaviest absorbency. Because the pads are fairly thick we needed size LARGE denim pants. This held full bladder urine for hours. As far as the poop, that's a different story. It would drop out and we'd just clean it up. Now, I think they have disposable diapers at PetSmart and other pet places. I don't know how much urine they hold or if they hold poop. I know at the time we went through this I could only find disposable diapers online and they were expensive. I hope this helps. We knew the reason why after a through medical workup and then she would start to pant heavily when she knew we were leaving. TV or radio wasn't an option as she was deaf at this point. SO we did what we could for her to make her life comfortable.

** We never limited her water. I don't think you should do that.

 

[Agnes_and_Lucille]

I would definitely check in with your vet first but if you want to go the diaper route, Marilyn at House of Puddles has had a lot of success with tinkle trousers www.tinkletrousers.com. They cover all of Liz's tummy and bottom and keep her from laying in urine all day. Liz is blind, deaf, has limited mobility, and is very scared of the other bassets since she lost her vision (she may also have dementia) so the tinkle trousers help keep her comfortable while Marilyn's away from the house.

 

[Betsy Iole]

Can she go outside to relieve herself while you're at work? If not, maybe the time span is too long for her to hold it? If that turns out to be the case and a dog door isn't an option, then you might need to look at gating her into a contained area or training her to pads. Agree that a vet visit is a good idea.

 

[Mikey T]

Agree that a vet visit is a good idea.[/b]

onther reason for a vet check is given her age CDS {Canine Dysfunction syndrome} can be a cause for loss of house training as well. Anipryl has proven effective for many dog with the condition.

 

[bonnie w]

Got home after work tonight and both the girls rushed to the door. Paisley flew outside to the lawn and did her business, Ruby hung back and finally went out. I checked all the rooms and found nothing. Whoopee!! I visited the vet last week for a check up on Paisley with the purpose to make an appt. to have her spayed. The vet checked her and said that she is in heat and can't be spayed for another two months. It will be then that I will install a doggy door. One option that I may have to resort to is crating Ruby while I am gone. Things are just up in the air right now. Thanks again for all your input and I will weigh each idea out.

 

[2hounds]

My childhood dog Sparky (ATB) had these problems for the last year or so of his life (my dad just couldn't let go) and we just cleaned up after him as gross as it was (we finally had him put down at the age of 13).

~Heather