Incontinent Dog - How Do You Cope?

[jax39]

Tilly is an elderly springer, who is incontinent at night. Every night she wees at least 3 or 4 times, my upstairs is covered with plastic mats and towels, so its a daily chore to wash the carpets and wash the towels etc. Occasionally, I have to deal with poo as well. Last night she had diarrhoea, and has spread it throughout the house, having stood in it, she sleeps on my bed so Ive also had a sleepless night having to sleep next to the smell of poo!! (Obviously I cleaned the majority last night.) This isnt a first, and to be honest, Im struggling to cope. All the carpets are ruined, but theres no point replacing them, Im having to vax them at least once a week. Today Im just feeling exhausted, with all the washing, cleaning etc, sleepless nights, and maybe I just needed to get it off my chest. So thanks for reading! Is anyone else in this situation? How do you deal with it? Its not Tillys fault, and I love her dearly, Im just finding it so hard to keep on top of it now.

[BeadyP]

I can completely sympathise.

Firstly, have you seen the vet about it. Propalin is incredibly good for incontinence.

 

Secondly, for me, its my mindset. At the start I did find it a chore, however, now I have extra sets of bedding,one washed and dried, one being used, one being washed, and one spare, and its my routine to wash them every day.

 

Does Tilly lay in the wee?.

For me thats worse than the weeing on the carpet. I worry about urine burns, so, I use lots of wet wipes, and I place nappies under her bottom, so that when she leaks, it doesnt go back onto her fur.Thats been really helpful.

Also I try not to feed her after 6 pm,(but she still has water) and then I frequently take her out during the evening, in the hope of emptying her.(I have no idea if that theory works).

 

Thankfully, she is much better than she used to be.

I hope it does get easier for you.

[Fee]

I do sympathise, my old Callie was very incontinent in her last months, and it was hard sometimes. She mainly wet her bed in her sleep rather than getting up and weeing elsewhere which was probably easier to deal with, though. If weeing her bed is a problem I'm a great fan of Vetbed, which helps to draw moisture away from the dog and keep her warm and relatively dry, and it washes and dries in no time.

 

Would Tilly cope with being crated at night? If she had a big enough crate to have a bed at one end and some space covered in thick newspaper where she could go if she needed to it might at least contain the problem and save your carpets.

[blackmagic]

If she sleeps on your bed bit is weeing all over the place it seems she is aware of needing and gets off your bed, but can't hold it.

 

Your vet may be able to give her something to help.

 

You can get nappies for dogs which might help.

 

http://dog-nappy.co.uk/

 

http://www.petplanet.co.uk/product.asp?dep...&pf_id=5235

[Mrs Mop]

Before Merlin's operation he couldn't go through the night so I got up and let him out. Gracie has just had a spell of wetting the bed, she sleeps on my bed and I have a waterproof sheet with a fleece on top for her. As there are another 4 dogs on the bed there isn't much room for her to move round

 

I took Gracie to the vet, she is already on Propolin which works normally but this wasn't leaking, it was a full wee. The vet took some urine out of bladder and sent it to the lab. I am still waiting for the results but she seems to have stopped this now.

 

I would take her to the vet for a full check-up, it could be cleared up easily but if it isn't you can then work out the best way to deal with it.

 

Give her a gentle hug from me.

[merledogs]

Could you confine her to the kitchen at night? If you give her a waterproof bed and shove towels on top then it will be nice and comfy for her, but all you have to do is mop the kitchen floor and shove a towel or two in the wash every day

[GoldenOldie]

My 15 year old collie x was incontinent for the last few months of his life and I found the waterproof bed invaluable with a towel or blanket over to wash as necessary. Unless I was with him I left him in the kitchen with his bed and puppy pads, these were also useful in the living room or carpeted areas because of the waterproof back. There's no easy solution and it can become very stressful. Good luck.

Sally.

[Jacobean]

Get a few bits of vet bed so you can easily wash them in the machine and always have one clean and dry ready to pop in her bed.

 

I would take her to the vets and get her started on Propalin or something similar. It doesn't work for all dogs but there are other things to try. Denes greenleaf tablets for instance. You can get those from Pets at Home or similar.

 

I know how it feels as my Yorkie was the same. She was easy to bung in the bath to clean her up each morning though. It was a pain but easier than a larger dog. Confine her to an area of the house if you can so you just have one small area to clean up rather than everywhere.

Edited August 2, 2008 by Jacobean

[ReikiAnge]

Sweetie did have accidents in her final months, but the main issue with her was that she would try to get into the kitchen for a wee, which she did manage (and we usually got up once or twice during the night anyway but not always in time) and she would wee on the kitchen floor, which is much easier to clean, but then she would potter around in it and everywhere else, which was the difficult bit. She'd always done the pottering around bit but it wasn't a problem when there wasn't wee on the floor.

 

She had slept in an armchair that she'd bagged when she first arrived and that was "Sweetie's chair" from then on in but she got to the stage where she couldn't get in or out of it safely - she ended up getting off over a side of it once and ended up stuck by the pc. Luckily Max became super alert dog and would bark when she got into difficulty so she was never stuck somewhere long.

 

Would Tilly cope with being crated at night? If she had a big enough crate to have a bed at one end and some space covered in thick newspaper where she could go if she needed to it might at least contain the problem and save your carpets.

 

I ended up buying our first crate when she started going downhill - for her own safety more than anything. I could put her in there with some cosy blankets and know she wouldn't be able to hurt herself, fall over, get stuck etc. I would definitely recommend this - you could put it by the side of your bed if that's where she likes to sleep, a springer shouldn't need a huge one and you can get them for around £30 on eBay if you can't find anywhere cheaper. I use Kudos beds which are waterproof (although I didn't have one for Sweetie so just had two lots of towels/blankets on the go) and put a comfier blanket on top of the waterproof bed so it was just the blanket that needed washing.

 

Looking into things like propalin is a good idea - there is a thread in the Oldies Club section I think from not too far back, with various suggestions for incontinence, including propalin.

 

It's a difficult time I know I ended up in tears on several occasions.

[Melp]

I've had 3 incontinent dogs, one with bowel and bladder incontinence.

It can be exhausting, frustrating and upsetting and it's bloody hard work.

2 of mine were greyhounds and with thin skin, urine burns are a real worry. I used to wash them down, coat them in vaseline and lay them on pampers bed mats [for kids] along with waterproof sheets underneath and plenty of spare bedding on the go.

To be honest I'd be confining your dog to one room at night or a crate. Neither of my greys had propolin because their problems wouldn't have been helped by it but I used to manually empty Sids bladder every couple of hours which did help [he had no awareness of his bladder or bowles so no idea when he needed to go or had been]

Digby the springer was a dribbler rather than full blown weeing and propalin did help him a bit.

Kathyw has had a lot of experience with an incontinent dog. I think she had a slightly raised bed at one point which enabled the wee to drain away keeping it off Grips skin.

Good luck, I know how difficult this can be

[greys mum]

Jackie if you need a crate give me a shout. (I'm in until 5, when I'm back to work) I have got all sizes!! I've got some vet bed (2 bits) that you can borrow as well. Up your way most days so could pop them in.

 

Go on, have a hug each.

[ranirottie]

firstly I would get Propaline and then get a large crate. I have had many incontinent dogs here and I use beds with waterproof inners and canvas outers and put vet bed on top. At night i crate the dogs on vet bed on top of paper. The wee goes through the vet bed so the top layer stays dry, the paper soaks up the wee. If the dog will not crate or is too unhappy they are confined to the kitchen and dining room with the waterproof beds. That way there is not too much of an area to clean. I also have a dog flap leading to my safe garden to help them but I know that is not always possible. I certainly would stop her wandering around and confine her to a smaller ,easier to clean space. x

[Wendbert]

When Poppy was incontinent due to all the tablets she was on, puppy pads were my saviour! She slept upsrairs with me but oddly would wee on the floor in the bathroom when she needed to go, so I'd cover the floor with the puppy pads so there was no mess and no stress for her when I was cleaning up. As her incontinence got worse, I took the covers off the sofa cushions, covered the inside cushion pads with bin liners and then put the washable covers back on top.

 

She would sleep on the floor next to my bed, so I made up a bed for her with a puppy pad on the bottom, then old towels and soft fleece blanket on top. My mum got loads of old towels from charity shops so I had a good supply. I kept some mild puppy shampoo handy for if she's wet herself in her sleep so I could clean her up.

 

Poppy would never have been happy being crated but old towels on the floors downstairs and puppy pads upstairs worked for us

[jax39]

Thankyou so so much for all your wonderful replies. Im not sure how to go about keeping her confined, and Im pretty sure being crated isnt going to be possible, Tilly is a nervy dog who is also deaf, and needs to be near me at all times for her security. She came from a rescue with no history, but Im almost certain she was a breeding bitch, who was thrown out once she was no longer of any use. She was found as a stray with an eye tumour, and had to have the eye removed. She has just weed herself in her sleep, on her duvet, so more washing! But shes looking so sorry for herself, Im really beginning to wonder if shes trying to tell me something. Been a hard day today. Thankyou so much for your responses, and I will have a good think about how to proceed.

[ReikiAnge]

Can you fit a crate next to your bed? She might well find it comforting. My rescue collie is a nervous creature and I introduced the crate to him a couple of years ago, aged about 7 (he actually took over Sweetie's after she passed away, I put it in the corner he usually went and hid in when he got scared, just moved his usual duvet etc. into it and he used it straight away). I have a big towel over it to make it more den like.

 

If you can borrow one and try her in it, start off maybe feeding her in it so she has a positive association with it and then maybe pop her in it for a few minutes at a time when she's tired to begin with? Not all dogs like them but it would certainly reduce your stress if she did accept one?