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Old Dog Poops in His Sleep!


Gloria Atwater
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Okay, this is an odd one, at least for me.

 

My old boy, Jesse, will be 13 in February. He's in pretty good shape, stays active, eats well, barks and romps and looks good. But age is starting to take its toll, as he's going deaf and he's slowly but surely losing strength in his hind end. So, I watch for little things that might tell me his health is suffering.

 

Well, he's come up with an issue that's ... mainly harmless, but just a bit perplexing. Apparently Jesse has discovered the knack of pooping in his sleep. :blink:

 

Several times over the past month or so, we've woken up to find these little dry turds just ... lying on the floor near Jesse's bed. The first time or two, I thought maybe the poop had stuck to his butt-feathers and rode into the house with him, to fall off when he laid down. Another time we thought maybe we just didn't wake up, when one of the dogs whined to go outside during the night.

 

Then yesterday evening, Jesse lay snoozing a few feet from my chair. When he woke up to move across the room ... I spotted two little turds on the carpet where he'd just been sleeping.

 

(I can't believe I'm writing about dog poop.) :huh:

 

But honestly, has anyone seen anything like this? His bladder is fine: he asks to go pee first thing every morning and never has any leaks. It's just ... poop seems to fall out when he's asleep! Not every day, not every morning, and it's never diarrhea, nor is it unusual smelling or abnormal in color.

 

But this situation is just weird and a totally new one, to me. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

~ Gloria

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With older dogs, it can be due to spinal / vertebrae deterioration; they can no longer control their bowels when they are really relaxed (ie sleeping). It can also be due to rectal polyps, an enlarged prostate, or other issues like this. ALSO it could be that he is a little constipated so he's not fully pooping out his daily load, and might need a diet change.

 

I learned all this from a senior dog rescue not too long. I retain things sometimes :)

 

Probably a vet visit is in order, maybe some xrays?

 

RDM

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Our old dog did this for years... Earned her the moniker Stinky. It got to be a great source of comedy around here. Stinky lived to be 17 or so, and she dropped turds for several years. Nothing to do about it but fling in the morning. At least they were always solid turds.

 

Stinky started doing this when her hind end started to go. Probably due to spinal degeneration.

 

Only horse and dog people talk so much about poop. People with infants, too.

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Our old dog did this for years... Earned her the moniker Stinky. It got to be a great source of comedy around here. Stinky lived to be 17 or so, and she dropped turds for several years. Nothing to do about it but fling in the morning. At least they were always solid turds.

 

Stinky started doing this when her hind end started to go. Probably due to spinal degeneration.

 

Only horse and dog people talk so much about poop. People with infants, too.

Nah,

Old people talk about it constantly... I used to do elder care. TMI!

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Yes, it's a major topic of conversation at each end of life. Heck, I prefer it to "my last labor".

 

Fergie did this in her last year. Not all the time, but more and more often. At least it was firm and easy to flush. We put an old shower curtain down and put her plush bed on that. Saved the carpet cleaning.

 

Heck, my grandfather had the same "problem" - although it was a problem only for my mother (his daughter-in-law, buy the way) as she was the one who had to do the cleaning. He was also in this 90s.

 

I hope folks put up with me as I age! Right now, I'm not getting old; I'm just getting cute. Some days, cuter than others.

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Thanks for the replies, y'all. :)

 

Jesse is suffering a slow degeneration of his lower spine. He still loves to romp around, but he loses track of where his hind legs are and sometimes ends up falling on his butt. Plus, if you turn his hind toes under, he doesn't feel the "wrongness" enough to pick his foot up and set it flat, again. He's not in any pain, of course, but the vet has also noticed that he's just slowly weakening, back there.

 

It makes me sad, because I know that's probably what will spell his end, ultimately. But so far he's still a happy, bouncy, noisy old coot, and the spirit is willing even if the body is slowly failing. He's trying to take care of himself, and even though he makes like he wants to do sheep, he now seems happy just sort of hanging around the edges, while the younger dogs do the actual work.

 

I'll talk to my vet soon. He left another little "deposit" on the bedroom floor this morning, and again seemed utterly clueless about it, asked to go out and pee like usual. It's probably as RDM said, when he relaxes to sleep or doze, "other thing" relax, as well.

 

Thanks again, everyone! It's nice to know I'm not alone in this - and to have people who are understanding of the topic of dog poop. :P

Cheers ~

 

Gloria

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I am known as the Queen of Poop among certain people. Not that I know that much but just that I am always checking it out, dog, cat, cow, horse. Just to know how well things are going with the critters.

 

Now, back to our regularly-scheduled programming.

 

PS - Thank you for a contention-free, real-world topic!

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Yes, I've acquired a similar fascination with poop. Even if one of my dogs farts and it's unusually pungent, I wonder what may have caused it. :P

 

I suppose the mothers of small children are as versed in the topic, but they presumably put it aside as soon as possible. ;)

 

~ Gloria

(Princess, or at least hand-maiden, of poop.)

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I was recently made fun of by a Big Hat for revealing that I walk our pastures regularly checking out the sheep droppings for shape, volume and consistency. I also learned today that chickens have two kinds of poop. Poop is totally fascinating for what it can reveal. Best when it's not public revelation about oneself of course.

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Okay, this is an odd one, at least for me.

 

My old boy, Jesse, will be 13 in February. He's in pretty good shape, stays active, eats well, barks and romps and looks good. But age is starting to take its toll, as he's going deaf and he's slowly but surely losing strength in his hind end. So, I watch for little things that might tell me his health is suffering.

 

Well, he's come up with an issue that's ... mainly harmless, but just a bit perplexing. Apparently Jesse has discovered the knack of pooping in his sleep. :blink:

 

Several times over the past month or so, we've woken up to find these little dry turds just ... lying on the floor near Jesse's bed. The first time or two, I thought maybe the poop had stuck to his butt-feathers and rode into the house with him, to fall off when he laid down. Another time we thought maybe we just didn't wake up, when one of the dogs whined to go outside during the night.

 

Then yesterday evening, Jesse lay snoozing a few feet from my chair. When he woke up to move across the room ... I spotted two little turds on the carpet where he'd just been sleeping.

 

(I can't believe I'm writing about dog poop.) :huh:

 

But honestly, has anyone seen anything like this? His bladder is fine: he asks to go pee first thing every morning and never has any leaks. It's just ... poop seems to fall out when he's asleep! Not every day, not every morning, and it's never diarrhea, nor is it unusual smelling or abnormal in color.

 

But this situation is just weird and a totally new one, to me. Anyone have any thoughts?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

~ Gloria

 

My older guy (12) had this problem. It turns out it was easily corrected by shaving around his rectal area. Even though he does have some spinal problems, what was happening was that he can't arch his back as much when he goes now. His feces were getting stuck in the hair and after it dried was following off where he laid down. The lady that gives him his baths just trimmed up around that area and as long as the hair there and the feathers around the base of his tail are kept short he has no problem with this.

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Oh Gloria, thoughts to you and your old friend!

 

 

 

I am also kinda versed in the poop, er, scat of wildlife. Useful in tracking and identifying. As often I am called out to look at interesting scats.

 

 

Sometimes people on my dear island are just too fascinated by droppings and think its what I live for too, I guess. :)

 

 

Seal poop- and seal's can only have poop, is the worse by far.

 

 

Birds of prey have a science around their- mutes- to tell how they have been eating or if they are ill or if you have their weight wrong.

 

I had a fox once live a poop on the rim of a coffee mug, left outside on an unsplit round.

 

 

 

The ravens drop - er- droppings on my neighbors head.

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Gloria, this is not at all odd. You're in good company. :) I've had old dogs do this too. I just figure it's one of those indignities of aging and it's always been easy to pick up & flush. It has always been the dogs who are getting weaker in the back end. I'd much rather have this poop problem than the incontinence, although that's been an easy fix so far with medication.

Laura

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I had an 18-year-old Border collie who started doing this during the last year of her life. I'm thinking now it was a sign of spine degeneration, because she was definitely slow and stiff. She'd just be walking through the house and out it would come, plop plop. I think she was also suffering a bit from dementia, because she didn't seem to realize it was happening (moreover, she'd sort of disconnected from things), whereas even a few years earlier she'd have been horrified at herself. Poor girl, she was also blind, deaf, and epileptic by that point.

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I confess, I am also a poop watcher. I firmly believe that the consistency and color of poop can be very informative - whether it be from livestock, birds, dogs, cats and yes, also humans.

 

And those of us who are poop watchers are in good company ---

 

When I was in graduate school, a Nobel Laureate was scheduled to lecture at the university. His name was Burkitt, and he had won the Nobel for being the first to show that a chromosomal translocation could cause cancer, specifically Burkitt's lymphoma. Being a genius, he had other interests, and he had recently been researching nutrition in Africa.

 

His lecture focused on the fact that Western diets (high sugar, high fat and low fiber) slowed the digestive process - with a transit time of approximately one week! (i.e. it would take food an entire week to travel through the digestive system). OTOH, the African subjects who ate 'simpler' diets (high fiber, less sugar, etc.) would transit their food in, on average, only 24 hours.

 

The main point that everyone was talking about after his lecture was his unique way of demonstrating how one could tell if one's digestive system was moving food through fast enough. He showed slides of toilets containing examples of correct and incorrect poop!!! A digestive system which is not moving the food through fast enough has a poop that sinks to the bottom of the bowl, whereas if one's digestive system is moving food through speedily, the poop would be floating in the bowl -- i.e. a floater. He recommended that we (those of us with traditional Western diets) needed to eat more fiber to move the food through our digestive tracts and suggested bran muffins as a good source of fiber.

 

For the next week or so after his lecture, everyone was commenting on 'floaters' (e.g. whether or not they had achieved a floater - TMI) and there was hardly a bran muffin available on or near campus as people attempted to increase their dietary fiber. :D

 

So if you are one to monitor poop, you are in good company and should not feel embarassed or ashamed.

 

Jovi

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ROTFLMAO! I love these boards. People can earnestly and sincerely discuss the darnedest things! :lol:

 

And I'm weirdly fascinated by that study on Western vs third world human poo! My Dear Hubby eats lots of fiber, because he's dealing with high cholesterol, but I just thought he didn't know how to properly flush a toilet. Now I know he actually has healthy poop! :P

 

Goal for the New Year: to achieve floaty poo. B):lol: :lol: :lol::D

 

You guys rock.

 

~ Gloria

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Being a city person, I am always present when my dog "pinches a loaf", and I always look it over before picking up. Non-dog-owners always find this creepy and disgusting. Some of the dog-owning people too. But it is a good way to monitor your dog's digestive health. Inquiring minds want to know! :P

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I understand (as my middle kid teaches 4-5 year olds) that there are a number of books about poop - animal and human - that are really popular.

 

Heck, now that the kids are well beyond that stage (as the youngest turned 39 yesterday, we sure hope so) and Fergie is gone, we even monitor the cat's poop.

 

We also check around the pond and in the field on our walks. Is that the Muscovy ducks', or have Canada geese moved in? Is that Hubble, Barkley, Riley, Z - or is it a fox or a coyote?

 

Hey, we, led by our border collies, are more intelligent - therefore more inquisitive - than mere ordinary folk.

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Between Maggie and Spur having recent digestive issues and my poor Reno with his pacreatitis, I feel like I have spent way too much time looking at and thinking about poop. My vet even has a "poop chart" with pictures so you can more accurately discribe what is going on with your dog. I am hoping the day will come very soon where I can stop obsessing about it!

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I dated a guy for a while with a very old lab who had this issue. Except that the dog weighed about 180 lbs, and so when he'd get up there would be a GIGANTOR turd laying there. One night this happened and the guy I was dating didn't see the turd and stepped in it. Something came over me and I got tickled. It didn't go over very well, me laughing.

 

My issue with my old guy is that when he wakes up from sleeping there's not much time between the waking and the peeing. It's presenting a challenge for sure.

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They say confession is good for the soul...

 

On cold mornings, I take my dog for a walk down our street. When she drops her load I bag it for disposal in the dumpster in our courtyard. It's in plastic, and it's warm.

 

The ultimate in low-tech, biodegradable, single-use hand-warmers. 101 degrees F. Just another of those little advantages to pet ownership. (Although, if it weren't for the dog, I probably would just stay inside when it's that cold.) :P

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