The subject: Bagel, a Beagle/Basset mix acquired from a shelter 1.5 years ago. He is anywhere from 11-13 years old, deaf, blind in at least one eye, and has a list of puzzling, mostly minor ailments the length of my arm. He is very cheery and obnoxious senile old fart.
The history: In May, we had a long night with lots of whining and needing to go out. The reason for this was made very clear when daylight rolled around and it looked like something had been violently murdered in my bathroom. Somebody was peeing lots of blood! Yay! He had x-rays (no stones) and a urinalysis (only rbc’s present). Baytril patched us back up and I was able to sleep and stop cleaning up pee. Briefly.
In September, we had a lot of random pooping and peeing in the house, which made so much sense once a puddle came up bloody. Back to the vet. Urinalysis again showed only rbc’s. The prostate was suspected, back on Baytril to hopefully control the swelling of the old dude’s internal manly bits.
Life was good until a month later it came up again! Back on Baytril. Abdominal ultrasound showed nothing. NOTHING!!! This was both good news, in that there are no nasty tumors, but also bad news in that now we don’t know what is going on.
The pattern: Antibiotics seem to control our mystery ailment which pops about a month after treatment, and presents itself as Bagel using our bathroom as his personal poop & peeatorium, which is NOT lending itself to domestic tranquility at.all. Then the blood shows up and I say, “ohhh poor baby, time for expensive drugs!” and my wallet sobs all the way to the vet again. We are 3 punches away from getting a free burrito.
What happens now:We are going back next week (holiday, grrr) for a sterile urine culture to see what else may be lurking in bladderville, and plan on treating him with pulse antibiotic therapy so he will just be on some kind of antibiotic one week every month to try and prevent it. The urine culture is to see what we can get away with using, hopefully not Baytril every time! He is also getting another dental because the smell of rotting face when he opens his mouth is a bit stifling in 800 square feet.
Why I am posting: This latest round of Bagel trying to rid himself of the contents of his bladder has been unbearable. He has started peeing in his crate for the first time ever. He has lost control in his sleep twice before since I got him, and now it seems to be happening almost every time he goes in his crate. I am not yet sure if he is truly incontinent, or if he has reached a level of honey badger don’t give a shit from either discomfort or attitude at being constantly Alcatrazed so we don’t go wading through urine in the house. I bought a belly band for him and he actually peed in it today - he had been out less than 3 hours previous, and that is really unusual for him.
So there is a medical aspect to this, and we are working on getting to the bottom of it. However, I am just so worried that this is looking like a permanent incontinence issue, and constant floods of stinky male dog pee, even on linoleum or hardwood in a rental house, is just going to be rough. My boyfriend, who is not too keen on Stinkyface Peebutt to begin with, is home all day currently while I am working so he is the one dealing with this the most. How do you all with incontinent dogs do it? Do you just keep them confined constantly and do a LOT of laundry and give them a LOT of baths? That is my main question. I do not have a way to keep him outside currently, and he is so bright and perky most of the time despite his physical issues that it’s really just not time for him to go yet. I tell the boyfriend that he’s pretty much guaranteed to live longer than the dog, but those kinds of soothing platitudes don’t seem to help much after using up the second roll of paper towels for the day…
