waffles Posted January 10, 2013 Report Share Posted January 10, 2013 This morning we noticed Levi smelled awful!! Like, musty attic mixed with urine. His whole side and torso seemed to reek. I looked all over the house and found a large urine stain on the old couch he sometimes sleeps on (in the exact spot he sleeps too). He is 4 years old, neutered, never has pee'd inside and it is obvious he pee'd while sleeping. I am at work now and my vet is only open until 1pm today. I assume we will be taking him in tomorrow to get him checked out. I have already done some quick searching online and it seems a UTI and something that causes the bladder muscles to weaken are two possible causes. I have not noticed any change in behavior except I did notice, starting about 2 weeks ago that he did not seem to be drinking as much water. Usually when we come inside he goes right for the water bowl and many times recently he won't drink at all, even several minutes after exercising outside. I thought maybe with the cold temperatures he wasn't getting as thirsty or I was just imagining things. Any thoughts or previous experience with this? I hope it is not anything serious. Edit: I called my vet and we have an appointment for tomorrow but she did not sound too concerned (the tech on the phone). She said with a UTI he would be extra thirsty (which he is not) and that it could be a one time event. There is no blood in his urine (peeing on snow and it looks normal) either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthfieldNick Posted January 10, 2013 Report Share Posted January 10, 2013 FWIW, I have a neutered (at age 3) male who has been incontinent most of his life. He's on ProIn, and it does the trick at a low dose. We hear about older, spayed bitches being incontinent, but it does happen in males, too. Just something to think about if it's not a UTI, etc. My younger dog (neutered male) once peed in his sleep. Never happened again, no apparent cause. Dreams of fire hydrants? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvw Posted January 10, 2013 Report Share Posted January 10, 2013 You won't necessarily see blood in urine, but it could still be there. My old female has had sleep incontinence since she was 3. She is maintained on 25mg PPA only twice a week. I'm told that is an unusually low dose. But the meds aren't super expensive even if you have to give twice a day. Jennifer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waffles Posted January 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2013 FWIW, I have a neutered (at age 3) male who has been incontinent most of his life. He's on ProIn, and it does the trick at a low dose. We hear about older, spayed bitches being incontinent, but it does happen in males, too. Just something to think about if it's not a UTI, etc. My younger dog (neutered male) once peed in his sleep. Never happened again, no apparent cause. Dreams of fire hydrants? Thanks for the responses. The tech did mention dreams, half joking I think. But Levi does have some vivid dreams (yelping and kicking) She said if he does not do it tonight that I don't have to keep the appointment and he may never do it again. I was persistent about bringing him in so I feel if she thought it was serious she wouldn't have said that. I hope it doesn't turn out to be anything that requires long term medication. I still can't get past how bad he smelled this morning! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gideon's girl Posted January 10, 2013 Report Share Posted January 10, 2013 If his urine smelled that strongly, I would keep the appointment even if he didn't wet himself tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waffles Posted January 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2013 If his urine smelled that strongly, I would keep the appointment even if he didn't wet himself tonight. It wasn't that bad but Levi has the most amazing natural dog smell. I hardly ever bath him because his natural smell is so good so it took me by surprise that he smelled bad. It wasn't apparently obvious this morning what the smell was, it had a musty attic smell (probably the old couch) and it actually took me 2 hours before I finally went searching the house. I kept pulling his fur back and sticking my nose on him, then it finally clicked that it was dog urine. I originally thought he rolled in a dead mouse the cats caught. He probably spent all night licking it off, he tends to be a clean dog and will clean mud off himself. I have a feeling I will keep the appointment. Will they do a urinalysis to diagnose or anything else? Just curious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
workindogs Posted January 10, 2013 Report Share Posted January 10, 2013 UTI urine smells far far worse than regular urine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waffles Posted January 10, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2013 I don't think he smelled any worse than a dog normally would smell who just slept in a puddle of urine. But I don't have any comparison or experience smelling urine of a dog with a UTI. So I don't know. Edit: For UTI's, don't dogs typically have to go often and dribble/walk with just drops of urine coming out? I only have experience being around a female who had one, and it seemed pretty obvious by her behavior. Is it different for males? What he pee'd while sleeping seemed like a lot and since he was sleeping it was obviously involuntary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juliepoudrier Posted January 10, 2013 Report Share Posted January 10, 2013 Proin (phenylpropanol amine, PPA) works wonders. The dose quoted above is very low. My older incontinent female has been on it since she was about 7 (she's now 15.5) and she takes 1/2 of a 50 mg pill twice a day. She started at half that dose, but with aging and some health issues, we have landed at the higher dose. It's possible that your dog just tanked up before bed, slept really deeply and an accident happened. It probably is worth a vet visit--as someone else noted, there can be plenty of blood in the urine without it being visible to the naked eye. One of my younger dogs has had several accidents. Rather than medicating, I have just been managing it with absorbent panties at night and limiting her access to water before bed. Over the space of 7 months or so, she's had just 3 accidents, so I'm good with what I'm doing for now. If it is true incontinence and you don't want to try prescription meds first, some people have luck with corn silk. That will be my next option for my young dog. J. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmadrid Posted January 10, 2013 Report Share Posted January 10, 2013 If it is true incontinence and you don't want to try prescription meds first, some people have luck with corn silk. That will be my next option for my young dog. J. My Sheltie-mix girl has spay incontinence. I tried various herbal remedies initially, but those didn't work well for her (one upset her tummy and made her vomit). I started her on corn silk as a last attempt to find something without going to prescription meds, and it has been awesome. She's been on corn silk for a while now (a year or so, I think), and only had maybe 4 accidents in that time. Before she started on the corn silk, she was having multiple accidents in a week, so the improvement has definitely been marked, and awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RuthBelle Posted January 11, 2013 Report Share Posted January 11, 2013 My Belle (now 5 years old) started peeing in her sleep, every day, a year ago. Vet tests showed she had a lot of crystals in her urine. She's now eating that vet prescribed Science diet for kidney problems and is on Proin-----haven't had a single problem since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waffles Posted January 11, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2013 Well Levi slept through the night with no peeing. I called the vet and they said to wait and see if he does it again before bringing him in. From what I have told them, they are not concerned about a UTI or him being in any kind of discomfort. So I guess we will wait and see what happens. I do wonder if it was him just drinking a lot before bed and something happened while sleeping (sleeping to soundly or so) that caused him to go involuntarily. He does like to wait until his last time out to potty before he will drink water. That night I had given him some treats while we were working on a new trick and he didn't drink afterwards until 10pm when he came back inside from peeing. At the very least I have learned a lot about dog incontinence from all my reading online yesterday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waffles Posted January 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2013 Thought I would update on Levi. He went 6 nights without peeing but yesterday morning we saw a pee spot on the old couch, smaller this time but obviously from him. Weirdly though, this time he had no detectable smell of urine on him. We took him into the vet this morning and he had 'some' bacteria in his urine. It was enough that my vet thought it was the beginning of an infection and sent us home with antibiotics. He said if he pee's again while on the antibiotics to give him a call and we'll start the meds for incontinence. He did say that incontinence in a dog his age is not something he sees often. So fingers crossed it is just an infection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waffles Posted February 9, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2013 Another update- antibiotics are done. We did 2 weeks worth and he has been doing well since. I do give him corn silk twice a day still and am seriously considering switching to a raw diet. It seems likely this was just an infection but am wondering if it will come back. No one seems to know why from what I have read online but many say a completely grain free diet (which he was on for 2 years until 2 months ago I switch him to Fromm gold) or a raw diet can help. For now I am keeping up with the corn silk and will buy a small bag of Fromms grain free food and see how it goes. Thanks again for all the responses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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