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urge to herd
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Oh dear, sorry, Ruth and Gibbs!

I have no personal experience with leaky males, hopefully someone will jump in.  Roy turns 13 on 11/8 but so far he's continent.  It cheers me that his first morning pee takes about 45 seconds as I'm pretty sure he's really emptying his bladder.  He's never been a real 'marker' like some, happily.

Any chance Gibbs might have a UTI?

Good luck, best wishes, and keep us posted!

Amy

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Thanks for the good wishes, Amy. I don't think it's a UTI. He's not shown any signs of pain when he's actively peeing, the urine smells like urine, there are no overt signs of blood. And he's been leaky for years, had him to the vet more than once, no signs of UTI ever. I know that doesn't absolutely mean this ISN'T a UTI, but keeping an eye on it.

R&G

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Sorry Gibbs. It $uck$ to get old.

An option may be to put him in an X-pen at night with pee pads - if he is OK with the X-pen. I had an 18-19 YO girl that would start walking around in the middle of the night (she had a bed in my bedroom), and I would wake up and rush her outside. As she got older, she could no longer hold it and started peeing on the area rug - but only the 4x6 rug, not the wood floor. I would cover the rug with pee pads every night, and they would absorb her pee. Nothing leaked through. IIRC, it took about 8 pads to cover the rug, but only 2 pads were peed on at night.

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Hi Ruth

I had a male who in his later years had a lax sphincter muscle at night during sleep.  I solved that problem with an ex-pen.  I set the pen up in a corner, so I got a bigger area by only using two sides.  The bigger area allowed him to move away from any accident.  I put old bedspreads down, so clean-up was easy in the washing machine. 

My best friend over the years has been a carpet cleaner -- through puppies, to kids dogs when they came to visit, and through those tough geriatric years.  Best purchase I ever made, and I have replaced it maybe 3 times.  Easy clean-up followed by Nature's Miracle. 

I tried a belly band once with a shelter dog when he first came to me.  I knew people who used them with small dogs, but they never worked for me.  the band would become full, and then drip.  It was harder to clean up spots all over the place, instead of one big spot.  But I don't know -- maybe I was not using it correctly. 

Love to Gibbs

 

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So sorry this is happening to Gibbs. 

When my beloved Kit dog was 16, 17, she leaked urine at night, quite a lot. Or else she just peed, not sure which. For close to a year I got up several times during the night, every time I heard her stir,  to let her out. That started adversely affecting my health due to lack of consistent sleep and constant fatigue, so  I confined her to the kitchen and put down fresh towels (a lot of them) under her every night.

It wasn't a terrific solution because she had to lie on urine soaked towels,  and I felt really bad about that, but it was the only thing that would work for me because I had carpet at that time in the other rooms and couldn't get up every morning and scrub another spot or three. The thing about urine in carpet is that even with the best enzyme cleaners there is still some left which you can see if you use a black light. It never really goes away even if it doesn't smell. ( I am finally next month putting in a new plank floor that will be so much easier if/when I have an elder with that problem again)

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THANK YOU ALL! for those wonderful suggestions. I'd been thinking about an xpen with something washable on the floor. The problem with pee pads, which I've been using for him for at least a year, is that he has to scuff them up and 'rearrange' them before he lays down. Which leaves the pee pads all over the place and not necessarily where he decides to lay down. 

Forging forward with the suggestions, will let you know what I settle on.

R&G

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1 hour ago, urge to herd said:

THANK YOU ALL! for those wonderful suggestions. I'd been thinking about an xpen with something washable on the floor. The problem with pee pads, which I've been using for him for at least a year, is that he has to scuff them up and 'rearrange' them before he lays down. Which leaves the pee pads all over the place and not necessarily where he decides to lay down. 

Forging forward with the suggestions, will let you know what I settle on.

R&G

LOL. Why is it some dogs sabotage our best efforts?

I have also used an 6x6 piece of linoleum/vinyl? flooring (purchased off a roll from Lowe's) underneath the xpen as a layer of protection. The xpen is arranged in a 4x4 square which leaves extra on the sides.

 

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How about a tarp? It could be under the x-pen, held down by heavy weights on the outside of the pen so it can't be moved. Then the towels go in layers on top of the tarp. If the towels get rucked all up (I have a dog who loves to ruck up rugs to lie on too) then the tarp is still there on top of the floor and can just be wiped or hosed off.

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21 hours ago, gcv-border said:

LOL. Why is it some dogs sabotage our best efforts?

I have also used an 6x6 piece of linoleum/vinyl? flooring (purchased off a roll from Lowe's) underneath the xpen as a layer of protection. The xpen is arranged in a 4x4 square which leaves extra on the sides.

 

Well, I did get him knowing he's a border collie. That's on me. :wub: Dang dogs!!! I like the linoleum idea. Will do some looking around.

And he's still pretty darn cute.

R&G

 

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          I'm gonna go with yoga mats. I've used them as a 'walkway' on the linoleum floor in part of my home. G has never liked walking on linoleum. I put a couple down at the foot of the bed last night, put the piddle pads on top. Of course he scuffled up the piddle pads as always. He was happy to sleep directly on the mats. AND the yoga mats didn't leak through to the carpet, I was able to wipe up the urine quite easily this morning, and I can keep looking for used yoga mats at  thrift stores. Such a simple fix.                       Thank you, my dear friends, for listening and coming up with such great solutions. I'm keeping those in my back pocket in case the yoga mats lose their charm. This board is AWESOME!!!!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           R&G  PS ~ once he falls asleep he's out for the night.

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WOW! I found a yoga mat at Walmart that is 6 mm thick and waterproof. It turns out to be the cure for all ills:). Okay, probly not ALL ills. Gibbs slept through the night for the first time in months, which meant I slept through the night as well, for the first time in months.

I think the thickness of the mat makes him a LOT more comfortable, so no restlessness. The mats I was using were 2 mm thick and ancient at that. He still leaks, his belly was damp. There was no listening to him get up and down, scuff the pee pads around, etc. Happy, Happy, Happy!

Still need to get the carpets cleaned, but knowing that I get to sleep through the night is such a gift. Thanks for all your support

R & G

 

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