Elderly bitch weeing in the house.

My old girl will be 16 next Oct. She is not incontinent, she knows when she wants to go but the time between knowing and doing is getting shorter.

The problem is really just in the early mornings, she gets out of bed, has a good shake and makes for the door. She sleeps upstairs and usually the sound of ear flapping is enough to wake me but the time needed to get her out is getting shorter.

I have a broken ankle at the moment and can't do stairs so I'm sleeping downstairs, the dogs are all upstairs with OH, as I wouldn't be able to get to the door quick enough. This morning he heard her ears flap but by the time he got out of bed she'd wee'd on the carpet and when he opened the door she wee'd on the landing.

I'm hoping my plaster will come off at the end of the week but I don't think I'll be able to run down the stairs quick enough for a while. I'm thinking of setting an alarm for silly o'clock in the morning once I'm better and taking her out but I don't want to ask my OH to do this as he has more than enough on his plate at the moment having to look after me and the dogs plus everything else.

Has anyone used puppy pads? How big is the biggest size? She is an adult Weimaraner. I'm wondering if a shallow tray in the bedroom with something absorbent in it would do the trick as a temporary measure until I'm properly mobile again. I don't want to send him out to get puppy pads if they are going to be useless. We don't get newspapers delivered here so that is no use, the only other thing I can't think of is old towels.

If she was incontinent and weeing in her bed it wouldn't be so bad as it could just be washed every day. I know there is medication for spay incontinence, does anyone know if it would work with this situation?

Is it possible to fit a dog flap? Mine is a godsend.

For the last year or so of my last dog's 15 year life, she had the same problem and couldn't always get outside in time, although my goodness she always tried to. I also couldn't leave her for more than a couple of hours during the day as her bladder just got weaker.
At night she'd always slept in her bed beside our bed and what I eventually did was put wee mats in front of her bed and then a piece of 12" high expandable trellis. (My dog was a 10" Lhasa Apso so not much good for your dog). I was so aware of her waking in the morning that I'd pick her up and literally run outside, but the wee pads just meant that if she woke in the night she could go on them .... which she did latterly when she also became quite senile and they were also used on the odd occasion when she had an upset tummy Right up until the end she NEVER weed in her actual bed.
Not nice for anyone concerned and my OH wanted her shut in the kitchen at night. I refused as she'd slept every night of her life next to our bed.
Maybe, when you are out of plaster (poor thing) that you could take her out at silly o'clock, but until then I would definitely use wee pads.

Really feel for you I live in a 3 story and sleep at the top, when Anoushka was ill she would come up to wake me but I needed to get down quick to stop an accident and slipped one night down the stairs and fractured my coccyx It wasn't very long before she couldn't make the stairs at all so we did have a good few accidents, even weeing on the rug while we were all sat there . It is awful seeing your family pet that way x x

I think puppy pads only come in one size as they are made for puppies and the ones I had were about 20 inches square if that's any help.
If it's age related incontinence a trip to the vet is necessary so they can rule out an infection but as far as I know it can be treated with propalin or incurin which tighten the bladder sphincter which becomes loose with age.

Thanks

We had a dog flap in our previous house but didn't put one in here when we moved. I wouldn't mind putting one in but I think she would have to go back to sleeping downstairs. Started having the dogs upstairs at night when they got old, I got paranoid about not knowing if they were ill in the night. It was a mistake really ,I didn't think about them having to get upstairs when they were older, though it is not a problem yet.

She had a urine infection at the end of last year, it's not anything like that, she isn't going frequently it is just overnight she doesn't last and she does try her best to get out.

Will try putting something down for her and try and get her to the vets in the week if that doesn't help.

Bless her she is geriatric in human terms of age. Plenty of geriatric humans have lost full control of their bladder!

You are very lucky to have had her live to such a ripe age without any major problems worse than this.

Hope you sort something that doesn't involve her getting too stressed or you and your OH falling out over it!

*I wouldn't insist she started sleeping somewhere else at this late stage in her life either.

i had a similar problem with an old pointer who was almost 17. I found the propalin worked a treat with her.

Largest ones on Ebay are 60 x 90. You could put a couple together to cover a larger area. Search under dog wee pads or puppy pads.

More usual size is 60 x 60

I had a similar problem with my old boy before he passed, but we live in a bungalow so not as big a problem as you have.

On the broken ankle front, it will be quite a while before you are fully mobile even after the plaster comes off so it's worth looking at other options besides diving for the door

I have two elderly incontinent boys who find it had to last all night.

My solution is to set my alarm an hour earlier (5am) and let them out, then snooze on the sofa until my real getting up time.

However, I would get her vet checked as there may be a veterinary solution.

Thalice's Mum