Incontinence

[TigerJack]

I have a little dog with incontinence problems. Nothing to do with desexing though, he's a boy. His problems stem from birth trauma, he has some spinal damage and is partially paralysed and has limited sensation and not much anal muscle tone.

Consequently, my problems are pretty much all clean-up based. My small dogs live inside during the day and, as they do not have access to the yard, there is a 'wee mat' in the bathroom for them to use. It was all quite civilised before he came along and there was rarely a mess that wasn't on the mat. Living with an incontinent dog makes it confusing for the others. He is now 20 months old and is finally getting the idea that he has to head for the mat but it usually means a trail of dribble on the way to it. He really only completely empties when I go with him and point at the mat and hold him over it. It is lucky he thinks this is a favourite game but I usually have to help him to empty. He's got no idea when he needs to poo though. Thank god he's a little chi cross, I don't know how people with very large incontinent dogs cope.

He is a little sweetheart and his problems are, as I said, just one of clean up and I can certainly live with that. (Thank god the whole house is floorboards and tile, no carpet.) The main thing that is a pain is that it is confusing for the other little dogs. There is the scent of his accidents in places that they aren't allowed to urinate so they start to think it is OK to go anywhere. Unfortunately it now means that my previously well housetrained small dogs occasionally go where they aren't supposed to because they now think they are allowed to, it is scent marked after all. I think I will try the citronella oil solution that an earlier poster mentioned. Anything is worth a try.

Good luck with your little one

Jo

[Mana]

Just saw this had resurrected... :D

The pee sample showed some inflammatory cells - she has had a bit of an infection, but the vet felt that the cause was physical, not infectious.

There haven't been any more plate-sized puddles or sopping wet tails... not sure what the triggers are, but at the moment it's manageable without drugs. She may be wetting her bed in the crate a bit but I haven't been aware of it, and there's no smell and she doesn't seem bothered. If the dribbles get more frequent I'll try the hormone (stemerole or something?) that the vet suggested.

Weird thing is, though we've had the dribbles in the new house, there have been no toilet training mistakes here (ie intentional peeing or pooing) which was still an ongoing-vigilance thing at the last house we lived.