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

Hi there, I am concerned as my cats urine has been smelling more strongly over ammonia over the past week or so. The strong smell is present when she urinates and defecates and I am worried this may be a symptom of an underlying health problems. Other than that she appears healthy, comfortable. She drinks a lot of water and eats regularly.
Any advice would be appreciated.

So I thought he was making himself throw up to eat again. Because he doesn’t really cry or seem in pain. But I switched his food to see if that would help. But lately he’s been throwing up way more, and it’s mostly just clear and a small amount of white foam, and sometimes some food mixed in. He still doesn’t seem in pain and doesn’t cry. Sometimes he gags to get it out, other times he will literally just be walking and a small amount will come out. He’s also been drinking quite a bit of water lately. And urinating quite a bit when he goes outside. But other than these symptoms, he seems completely fine.

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.

since last night I’m detecting this strong odor around Cookie; seems it’s coming from urine (as I detect it when I sniff stains on her pee pads as well when sniffing around her rear end. It is strong enough that I caught a whiff even as she just walked pass me.

Here is the thing – it is strong but not really a stink and not anything I’ve ever smelled before which I’d know what it might be. Smells kind of sweet and the closes thing I can compare it to is the way my hair spray used to smell like (back when I still had hair and was using hair spray) when particles dried and mixed with dust.

That is very confusing and I don’t know what to make of that. I imagine infection would have BAD odor whether bacterial or yeast …? I don’t want to just assume it might be from the meds as assumption is the mother of all f*** ups. Friend’s dog was on chemo so when her urine reeked they assumed it was from the chemo. Meanwhile it was a massive UTI and went under the radar until the dog exploded with blood from her bladder. (potty accidents and other issues were chalked up to the original issue the dog had, massive brain and brain stem inflammation).

So I don’t want to make the same mistake and assume one of the meds are behind the smell when something else could be going on.

Thoughts?

Sebastian has blood in his urine and I’m unsure what the cause could be. He’s about 9-12 months old and he’s never had blood in his urine before. Some of it had this grainy sand like stuff in it. He is NOT showing signs of straining when he pews inside or outside. He’s still a happy cat as far as I can tell but I have no idea what could cause this. We don’t have any money so we can’t take him to the vet but I will give her a call tomorrow. I’m extremely worried because we have two other cats. And blood is always a sign. Please give me advise.

My 9 month old female miniature dachshund was emitting a metallic odor from her back end yesterday. I noticed it, did some google-ing, and shortly after the smell disappeared. My research concluded that it might be her anal glands. But I can’t understand why the smell disappeared (and as of this morning had not returned). She has exhibited no other signs or symptoms (no scooting on the floor, no problems going to the bathroom, acting perfectly normal)

As the mystery continued, we were walking outside to use the potty before taking a drive. After peeing, we got into the truck with her on my lap. I noticed she has made a wet spot on my pants. Assuming it was just some urine from her potty trip, I used a towel to wipe me and her off. That’s when I noticed that coming from her vulva was a thick, milky, yellow color liquid that was accompanied by a fishy smell. This led me to think that maybe she has a case of vaginitis. As the day progressed, both smells and the discharge disappeared. And as of this morning, no trace of either can found. I was already planning on taking her to the vet on Friday, should I take her in sooner? She just finished her first heat last week and I am planning on finding out this week when we can get her fixed.

She is a spayed female, around 2 years old. She cannot urinate, and has a clear discharge with some blood coming from her vulva.

I have a two year old male cat fixed happy loveable and seems completely healthy eating fine drinking fine but is urinating blood in my bathroom sink i am on social security with no cash at this time what could it be and what can I do.

Hi my 8 year old cocker spainal bitch is weeing every hour. She has had bloods done there all normal x ray all clear urine tested showing nothing no infection no bacteria i do not know what to do next