Hi,

We have an almost 13 year old chocolate lab named Koko. About 5 weeks ago, she had a seizure. We took her into the vet and they prescribed Phenobarbital to help control the seizures. Since then, she has been incontinent in the house, and has to go outside very frequently (which is a side effect to this medication). This is a problem when my husband and i both work Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm. She has accidents in the house almost every day. Thankfully we put her in our laundry room which has wood floors so clean up is a little easier, but it still is stressful being that she usually pees, and then walks through it all day long tracking it everywhere in that room and gets urine all over herself. Especially when she has seizures, she paces for hours afterwards until finally calming down. We have tried NUMEROUS different types of diapers, doggy diapers (vets best from Petco, womens depends, XXL childrens diapers) and even tried buying suspenders and attaching those onto the diapers and around her to try to keep it on, but NOTHING stays on throughout the whole day. I just bought the “Dog Diaper Keeper” off Amazon today so I am crossing my fingers that it’ll work, if not i dont know what to do.

Besides that, my husband and I also have noticed that she has become increasingly anxious during the day and night time. She has always been on the more anxious side but lately it’s been getting worse, fast.

Since starting the Phenobarbital, she has had 3 more bigger seizures that we are aware of and since then have been to the vet and they have also prescribed Potassium Bromide which she is taking alongside the Phenobarb. We also noticed she started having facial seizures which the vet said could either mean the Phenobarb/Potassium Bromide are working and controlling the bigger seizures, or if the facial seizures continue along with big seizures it could be time for a CT scan.

In the last couple weeks, she has begun to wake up very early in the morning (3am) barking. We thought that maybe she was scared to be alone since having seizures, or is starting to get Alzheimer’s. Her kennel is in our living room so we thought that moving her into our room would help knowing that we were there, but it hasn’t. We also take her outside to go to the bathroom and that doesn’t seen to solve anything either. We are afraid to feed her too early because we don’t want her to get in the habit of eating that early in the morning. We have tried everything we can think of and she still continues to bark at all hours in the morning. The vet also prescribed her Diazapam to calm her down after seizures, but we are reluctant to use that to calm her down just because she is barking at night and hasn’t had a seizure.

We fully understand that it’s not her fault, and that she is getting old and is needing some extra TLC. But we feel so bad because we can’t figure out what she needs/wants. We desperately want to help her and keep her comfortable throughout the night.

Do you or anyone else have any advice for us? For the early morning barking or the diaper issue? Anything is greatly appreciated!

-Ashley

We have 2 male and neutered cats, and one female spayed dog. One of the cats (we aren’t 100% certain which, but are setting up video cameras to determine which) is peeing on the dog beds. It started a year ago and would happen for a couple of weeks, then stop for a few months, start over again, repeat repeat. It happens mostly on the dog’s various beds, but has also happened on plastic shopping bags full of clothes. Comfy, soft things.

We took both cats to the vet when it first started and they didn’t find anything wrong… Just a few tiny crystals that most likely formed because they had to wait 2 days between the samples being taken and being tested, so all three of the vets said they were normal. We are taking them both to the vet again next week to do more testing (or just these guilty one, once we discover which one is doing it).

We have multiple CLEAN litter boxes, both open and closed top. One is even self cleaning after use, and my husband empties the others very frequently and cleans/washes them evey week. They have various bathroom and liter options, so I’m sure that’s not the problem.

We have tried cleaning the dog beds with all the appropriate cat urine cleaning solutions, but the second time we threw them all out and bought new ones. We did that the third time too. Now our poor dog has no beds until we solve the problem.

The dog is not a fan of the cats. She growls at them a lot, and is very protective of her food, “spaces,” toys, and bed. The cats don’t seem to mind at all, and act as though she’s not there, although I know sometimes cats don’t show when they are stressed. We know this is an issue, but she has been this way her while life. We not getting rid of the dog to solve the problem, not an option.

We of course will do all the tests at the vet (and do any surgery, take any medicine, or perform any procedure he needs), but we are worried that the poor cat is doing this due to a behavioral or dominance problem. If this is the case, does anyone have any recommendations about how to change his behavior? We will not be putting him in a shelter, we will not be re-homing him (unless we discover that he needs to be in a single pet home, in which case I will be heart broken but we will find him the perfect family), and no way in hell will we be putting him down. We will keep him even if he pees on my favorite rug or couch or carpet every 2 days. But I would obviously prefer if that weren’t the case… We have a baby coming in 6 months and I am hoping we have the issue mostly dealt with by then (although I realize long term behavior may take longer than that to change completely). Please help if you can. I feel like I am losing my very hormonal mind.

my little dog has had dairra for the past 4 day and half the time he trys but he cant poop he looks like he is in stress trying i cant get him to eat hardly or drink water he isnt acting like him self at all

She has her parvo shots but her sister passed away from an unknown illness and I’m just worried that she might have got It. she has been really stressed recently and she’s been staying at numerous peoples house until we get the area disinfected at her home and she has been eating a multitude of different dog food she is used to Alpo and blue diamond but at other peoples house she has been eating kibbles and bits could be what’s wrong with her and what do I need to do to help her get rid of the diarrhea is an online that before at night tell me that I needed to keep her away from food and water for 12 hours. This seems kind of confusing to me thing as whenever someone has diarrhea they need to keep fluids to stay from dehydrating I’m very confused as to what to do.

It’s very difficult to give her multiple meds, she sees me coming and runs to hide. I give the prednisone twice daily, that’s not so bad being a liquid, but it would be easier if I could get the pills in her all at one time. I’ve read where you can combine pills in an empty gel cap to get the cat to take them all at once, making it less stressful for her. What is your opinion on doing it this way?

Hi, I need some tips on my situation with my bunny so it would be great if you wouldn’t mind helping me out. My bunny is an adult medium male Brown HollandLop, I had had him since he was very little. I decided to have him free ranged around my garden both day and night because he would be very aggressive and stressed out if I caged him even though his cage is very big ( 3 meters long, 2 meters tall and 2 meters wide). I have never seen any other predators except stray cats, I wouldn’t worry about the cats that much because my rabbits are great friends with my dog and he would scare away the cats and at night my bunny would choose to go sleep in my garage which is right next to one of my families room so if anything bad happens we would hear it. I don’t know if this is safe but he seems very happy to be free ranged and have this cage open so he can go in for pellets and veggies. Please give me your opinion on what I should do with my situation.

Hello people of Pawbly, specifically friendly vets.
My dog is not doing well and I need some advice.

I just moved from a house with a doggie door that allowed for bathroom time, any time. Now I am working on a schedule and trying to get into a routine with my pup (2 y/o red heeler/terrier mix). For the most part it’s been fine. I have him in the kennel when I’m at work from 6-2 Monday through Friday and only live 5 minutes from work. I take him out right before I leave And right after. He sleeps with me at night.

Last Friday, I took him out before going to bed, waited forever but no number 2. I woke up the next morning and there was crap- a LOT of crap- more than I thought caninely possible, all over the floor of my room. Normal color, texture. I blamed myself for not waiting long enough and let it go.

So last night, same routine, didn’t crap. I ran him around for 20 minutes trying to jostle whatever loose. Nada. So I figured he could wait until morning. I was awakened at 3 am by horrible, hot steaming dog land mines all over My bedroom floor again. Same color and texture as normal.

So I out him in his crate For the rest of the night Because I think since he’s a den animal He won’t go crappin it up in there. I take him out before work And come home to a crime scene.

In his crate, he is huddled in the corner, and this wave of old sour milk or something hits me and there are puddles of yellow liquid that I’m assuming is crap since I didn’t smell bike and there are other, little piles of similarly colored solid poo elsewhere. He hadn’t eaten since the land mines the night before.

I take him outside and he pisses and squirts out a little more diarrhea and keep straining for another 2 minutes but nothing else comes out. There is a little blood now on his backside from straining so hard.

I googled it, and it said right now it’s acute, if it persists, to take him in. He seems in good spirits except was ashamed when I came in and as I was cleaning up after him. I was going to feed him but Google told me not to for the day.

I should also note: at my previous residence I lived with an elderly relative who used her early stage dementia to feed him whatever the Hell she wanted. “Oh I forgot you told me not to”- Fritos. Peanut butter sandwiches, leftover foods. And now he is only eating the expensive all natural food I give him.

So I don’t know what to do. Is it an adjustment period to the new place (only been here 2 weeks) is it the change of diet? Is it my bathroom schedule? Is it stress from being alone all day?

Any advice would be fantastic. Thanks guys and gals.

Doggies get stressed and anxiety too – here’s some natural help on today’s “Woof Wednesday” post http://wellnessfromkipperskitchen.wordpress.com/2014/05/21/natural-support-for-dogs-with-stress-and-anxiety/