Containing incontinent dog

February 13, 2021 6:03 AM

My dog has reached the “cant hold her pee” stage of life. How do I minimize the mess?

My dog is now fully incontinent. She has been fecally incontinent for some time and I got some great tips about that, which have been useful.

She is now pretty fully urinarily (is that a word?) incontinent. I need some tips on how to minimize the mess. She is starting to pee in the middle of the night. We have wood floors, so the mess is cleanable, but still an issue. She is an indoor dog and cannot be outdoors at night. I tried diapers but they didn’t work all too well. She is a lab, so it’s a lot of pee. She’s 15.75.

Better diapers?
Crate?
Medications?

I do not want reassurance that it’s okay to put her down. We aren’t considering that right now.

posted by mrfuga0 to Pets & Animals (14 answers total)

Pee pads can be really helpful during this stage, especially if she pees in similar places.

If she's peeing in the same places, putting down something waterproof (like a waterproof crib sheet, for instance) with something absorbent on top, like a sheet or a fleece. That might cover more square footage than your usual blue-backed pee pads, and can be tossed into the washer. Unless it would deter her from peeing in her usual place (she might prefer the wood floor), I might give that a try.

We have a smaller dog who is about to turn 16 as well, and have been dealing with similar issues. Sometimes it's just a matter of having a lot of cleaning supplies on hand—absorbent towels and the like—and accepting that this is what you're going to be doing.

Definitely ask your vet about diet and medication. If your dog hasn't been crated in the past, I'm not sure how an old dog would take to it, but certainly confining the doggo to a smaller space can trigger the "don't pee where you sleep" impulse and also limit where you have to do cleanup. Our 16yo dog has recently switched to a new diet and it has made him more alert as well as giving him a new pleasure (my 13yo son feeds his dog a raw diet, and recently started Old Dog on it as well. I make no claim as to any health benefits, but Old Dog is very enthusiastic about a bowl of raw ground meat, tripe, and various organ meats).

Much love to you and your canine friend.
posted by Orlop at 6:18 AM on February 13, 2021 [3 favorites]

My dog started peeing in her sleep after being put on thyroid medication, the vet prescribed Proin and the incontinence disappeared completely. So definitely talk to your vet!
posted by lemonade at 6:26 AM on February 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

If it's only at night and your dog is fairly content in a crate, I would definitely just crate her at night (with a pee pad), in whatever room she normally sleeps in. If she's never been crate trained before, it might take a long time and is likely to be distressing at first so I'd try other solutions first. In that case you could try an exercise pen or small room/blocked-off area completely covered with pee pads.
posted by randomnity at 6:57 AM on February 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

Agreed, talk to your vet and see if they have any thoughts. Pee pads everywhere for sure. We used washable cotton flannel pads. I would not personally try crate-training an elderly dog.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 7:19 AM on February 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

Proin worked wonders for my female Border Collie/Lab mix when she lost control of her bladder.
posted by Ufez Jones at 7:53 AM on February 13, 2021

What diapers do you use right now? Disposables aren't always the strongest but there are some good reliable washable brands out there. You can also line their diapers with pads, disposable or otherwise, to help absorb the extra urine, these are often called "booster pads" I have a smaller male dog and just use a woman's overnight period pad when being left for a while with great effect inside his washable belly band, it has the added advantage of keeping him dryer too. I have heard of people using childrens diapers on dogs for the extra absorbency, cutting a hole for the tail I have not tried this So you might be able to up the volume of liquid your current diapers can hold.

Pee pads and large whelping sheets all over the floor can help as can keeping them confined in one room or area. I'd suggest washable ones as they just seem to hold up to the dog moving around more than disposable ones. If you need something to protect your furniture I cannot recommend mambe waterproof blankets more highly, they would also work as a floor cover though more expensive than a whelping sheet.

A call to your vet couldn't hurt as there are meds that can help in some situations.
posted by wwax at 7:59 AM on February 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

If you haven't tried medications yet, there are a at least a couple of different ones that work really well! My dog was on one of them (Proin) for years, and then when that stopped working switched to the other one (DES) for more years, and they worked great. Female dogs in particular tend to have trouble with this as they age.
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 8:18 AM on February 13, 2021

Nthing pee pads. Nothing wrong with them. To train our older dog to use pee pads, I literally stuck one under her when she peed outside during a walk, brought it in and showed it to her on the floor. She never missed a pee pad after that.
posted by barnowl at 8:42 AM on February 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

We use a a couple of small machine washable rugs with pee pads on top. Otherwise the pads slide on the wooden floor.
posted by sm1tten at 8:53 AM on February 13, 2021

The problem with pee pads is that they get it on their legs (and sometimes lay in it, if they're hard sleepers) and bedding and they can get really painful dermatitis from it.

There are a LOT of different types of diapers out there, which ones did you try? For a big dog like that, you may need a combo of diaper + suspender rig to hold them up (example of "escape proof" diapers vs clip-on suspenders). You can see an array of washable styles on Etsy though some of those are commercially available as well, and many of those will accommodate additional absorbing pads to hold extra urine.

Even with the diaper you really should get up and change her at least once a night (or, without diapers, get up and change out her bedding at least once possibly twice a night), it's cold and uncomfortable once the diaper is wet.

Do talk to your vet as well. Not only is there lots of medication options that might help, they can teach you how to express her bladder. It makes a huge quality of life difference for you and her to be able to get her to fairly empty several times a day and before bed.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:44 AM on February 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

Oh, related to Lyn Never's point: I apologize, I was assuming that the dog was getting up and walking to a spot to pee, and perhaps not interpreting "incontinence" correctly.

We tried a diaper with our dog when she had a series of recurring UTIs and it was tough to get her to stop trying to remove it or laying in a way where leaks would occur. The best combination was both a disposable diaper underneath a machine washable diaper with an absorbable material in the crotch and suspenders. (I got the diaper off Amazon, but they don't make it anymore. It took a couple of tries to find one that worked well.)
posted by sm1tten at 10:26 AM on February 13, 2021

FYI, disposable pee pads designed for humans are bigger, stronger, hold more liquid, and feel more cloth-like than pee pads made for pets, in my experience. I had these when my dog had incontinence issues, and one pad would last a while: Link to Amazon, but probably any medical supply place would have them.

And seconding the Proin.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 12:28 PM on February 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

I used to use diapers, but my vet cautioned against using diapers since it can promote UTIs. Just something to keep in mind.

My 15 year old lab leaks in her sleep. She is on Estriol which seems to work ok. I always let her empty her bladder right before bedtime, and cover her sleeping area with layers of blankets that I wash often. At this point it's just about medicating and constantly washing bedding.
posted by koolaidnovel at 4:51 PM on February 14, 2021

I thought of this thread as I was tidying up around the dog bed in the bedroom and I will say that if her nighttime/naptime incontinence isn't too profuse, we do a sort of sandwich method on the dog bed with decently plush or fleece throw blankets (you want something with a bit of loft, they're more absorbent) in between large reusable waterproof pads like this. So, pad on top of the dog bed, then a throw blanket or two, pad, throw or two. You can go another layer if you want. The pads are a little slippery so I just secure the whole stack off in an unobtrusive corner with an XL binder clip.

If she doesn't wet herself terribly badly (like if you can get her clean with one warm wet washcloth), you could go that route and it's quick to remove a layer and let everyone go back to sleep. This is probably only practical if you have in-home laundry.
posted by Lyn Never at 4:12 PM on February 15, 2021