Fecal incontinence in dogs

jennyk213

My dog has defecated in the house 4 times over the last 6 months or so. She is 14 and has never done this before. I took her to the vet this morning and they think it may be fecal incontinence, especially since she has arthritis in her back legs and hips. They're also running lab work to see if something else shows up.

If the lab work comes back fine, is there anything else I should ask them to test for?

Thanks!

jen812

My dog had this problem. It really wasn't a big deal. Does your dog take arthritis medication? Maybe you could ask to up the dosage?

jennyk213

She is on some supplements for arthritis - I'll ask them if increasing it would help. Did that work for your dog?

I really hope that's all it is. 

Thanks.

jen812

She was taking Deramaxx for years. It worked well. Her last couple of years, the vet added another pill (sorry, I can't remember what its called). That made a difference for a while. Her last year, I expected to find poop near her bed practically every morning. She couldn't hold it overnight. It really wasn't that big of a deal though. Her poop was solid (a lot easier than cleaning pee). I just cleaned it & moved on with the day. I knew she couldn't help it & didn't even know she did it.
Just enjoy your time with your old man. I'd give anything to have her back.

jennyk213

I'll talk to my vet about it, thanks.It is definitely easier to clean up and thankfully we have wood and tile floors!

It's so sad when pets get older. In my mind, she's going to live forever so I always worry when something like this happens.

andreas4dogs

My 10 1/2 year old rough collie, Laddie, is bowel incontinent.

Over a period of a few months, I kept noticing poop more around the house. I thought it might be Laddie, wasn't sure, but brought him to the vet for something unrelated (I think his rabies shot was due). While I was at the vet, I asked if they could express his anal glands. They did and the vet tech said 'there was a lot of poop up there...he probably  has to go". I thought nothing of it...but even when I walked him and he was outside for awhile he did not 'go' until a day later. It occurred to me that perhaps he was somehow bowel incontinent. I talked to the vet and went back and had them check for tumors, fortunately there were none. The vet said that because of his arthritis (which he is on Deramaxx to help manage) it has caused low muscle tone in his back end. When he relaxes, i.e. when he is sleeping, he will poop in his sleep because muscles relax the most when he is asleep. He IS NOT urinary incontinent, just bowel incontinent.

This is how we manage his bowel incontinence: 1)We have a blanket on his orthopedic bed so when he poops on it, we can pick the poop up with toilet paper, flush it, and then wash the blanket. He has a couple blankets in rotation so he always has something to sleep on. 2) Since he can't feel when he has to poop, we just take him out more often (we luckily have a fenced in yard) so he has more opportunities to poop. For example, I go to bed very late and try to let him out before I go to bed, and hubby lets him out early in the morning at around 5-6am before he leaves for work. When I am getting the kids ready in the morning, he is outside for approx. 20 minutes (with monitoring and weather-permitting) so I don't have to worry about Gabe stepping in poop while getting him  ready for school (it has happened!) 3) He is on a strict feeding schedule and does not get treats at night to minimize the poop.4) He is kept in the kitchen (with his bed) when we go out because the poop is easier to clean up on the tiled kitchen floor than the carpet. 5) We are very careful what we feed him as he is sensitive to turkey/chicken and that can cause him diarrhea...which would result in more poop to clean up in the house. Obviously a hard poop is easier to clean up than diarrhea.  He tolerates salmon the best, so we have him on the dry Taste of the Wild Pacific formula. When it comes to wet food, we stick to the more unusual proteins found in dog food such as buffalo.

That about covers it! Good luck with the results and page me if you have any questions!!!