Is Mindy being territorial or is it incontinence?

ICARUS

So we recently adopted Mindy(about 12ish days ago). When we took her home we were sure to bring her bed to comfort her and make her feel a little more at home. Well on the ride home we noticed her bed absolutely stank of urine. I didn't know what to think, I mean I don't like to judge people but I mean wash the bed! Chris said it's common in dogs to mark their beds. So we left it at that until now. She's been a little bed aggressive which we thought was normal considering that's the only thing she knew. So we noticed her bed was soaked the other day. So I went and bought her a new bed and got rid of the stinky one. But yesterday I went upstairs, which is where she likes to hang out, and she was on my bed(not allowed) I scooted her off and there was a little pee spot about 3-4in in diameter. I was so mad! She doesn't need to pee frequently, she doesn't drink excessively. Is she trying to claim my bed or is she incontinent?

kamfam · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 7:31 am Post subject:

It's probably easier to rule out any medical issues first - then if that all checks out then it's clearly behavioral issues.

Weim · Housebroken Joined: 19 Jul 2008 Posts: 60

That small I'd guess she's leaking unintentionally.

There are many possible reasons - she could be spay incontinent if she was spayed young.

It could be stress. Partly from the move, but as she was dumped, very possibly she was living in a stressfull environement.

She could have a bladder infection.

She could have spondylitis.

It could be hormonal.

And there are probably other possibilities I can't think of at the moment and others I'm not aware of.

You could give her some Flower Essences to help her settle which if it is stress related, could help - I'd give her Star of Bethlehem for trauma and Walnut for change. They'd help her emotionally anyway and will do no harm.

Make sure she's not on the bed and if she's up on the settee, stick a plastic bag on it, then a towel, you'll see if she dribbles. If she does turn out to have a problem which sounds like a distinct possibility, vet bed allows the pee to soak through and keeps her dry, easily laundered too.

simis · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 5:50 pm Post subject:

Hmmm - my first inclination is to bring her to the vet to get checked for a UTI and a bloodtest to make sure all levels are within normal ranges.

Then, my second feeling is that I'd say that she's stressed. Do you have anything that smells like her old home - maybe cut out a piece of her old bed after spraying nature's miracle (or another enzyme pet friendly cleaner) on it since it is urine soaked? If not, can you leave a shirt of yours or your husbands around for her on her bed? She needs to know it's her spot. My girl has marked all 3 of her beds - I actually caught her one time on video! I put a new bed out for her, and she was taking forever to "make" it, so I started filming it, next thing I know she's popping a squat right over the middle of it!!! (And she had just been out and went) The other beds I have never seen her go on but I wash the covers when they start to look a bit gross and there are some old stains of urine that I spot clean off the bed filling.

Approximately how much water are you allowing her access to during the day?

ICARUS · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 6:22 pm Post subject:

well i'm home with her during the day so she pretty much has access to water from 6am-7pm. I just took her to the vet recently and we ran all kinds of tests on her including UTI just to be sure. So we know it's not that at least. I've been thinking that it may be both. I make sure to spend lots of time with her so she feels welcome which she seems pretty comfortable. She is spayed and she'll be 6 in December. I'm not sure how old she was when spayed I don't have many records on her unfortunately. She sometimes gets a bit growly when approached on her bed, never bite though. We let her know it's not acceptable to growl at us but we also try to respect her space if she needs it. So it seems pretty common in spayed females to be incontinent.

Weim · Housebroken Joined: 19 Jul 2008 Posts: 60

Lets just say it's not uncommon in spayed bitches to be incontinent. Sad

Mine has been intermittently since age 4 when she came here.

You've ruled out the most obvious medical reasons anyway. There are many possible natural treatments depending on the dog. Here are a couple of links with info

http://www.katberard.com/hea_incontinence.htm

http://www.herbal-treatments.com/articles_treating_canine_incontinence.html

http://www.dogaware.com/incontinence.html