Quick choice between dog poo or rats... TMI poo warning

[SlightlyJaded]

Dog sitting (we also own a different ddog). Visiting dog has been with us for 6 days and suddenly developed diarrhea - despite us sticking carefully to his usual foods/schedule. He seems well in himself, happy on walks and is drinking lots of water so I am not super worried yet, plus his owner is back first thing tomorrow.

The problem is he is super quiet. He doesn't let you know he needs to go out and poo, so we have to watch for hm to approach back door. This is fine during the day and he has managed get outside to do his revolting diarrhea puddles , but at night we have no way of monitoring.

He did a massive pile of shit on Tuesday night in the middle of the kitchen (that was the start of it) and this morning, there were four separate puddles of shit in the house.

I am happy to leave the back door open over night with the house alarm switched on for our last night with him (tonight) BUT two days ago DD thought she saw rats running along the back of the garden. There is a big garden centre on our road that that had a rat problem last summer so it's entirely possible. Our garden is super small - 6 metres long so no great distance for them to get to the back door.

I am now torn between almost certainly waking up to shit in my house or waking up to no shit but the possibility of a rat having snuck in.

Oh this is such a hard one! What breed are the dogs, would they scare off or kill any rats? Does the dog trample the shit about, or just do it and then avoid it? I would probably opt for shutting the dog alone in a room with hard floors and puppy pads put down on the floor, and then dealing with whatever hell is there in the morning, but definitely wake a few times through the night to check on the dog and tidy up. Dry biscuits or plain chicken and rice for tea for it.

My dog gets anxiety diarrhoea and it can take a day to "kick in" after something has upset her, even if she's on the same food, same routine etc.

Can you take him to the eat to get something to stop the diarrhoea. Sounds awful for you and the dog.

With diarrhoea that bad, I’d be asking the owner the pick up the dog early 🙈😬

Visitor Dog is a Lab, He is gentle and sweet but quite a big boy, so the mess is considerable. I don't know if he used Puppy Pads as a puppy - crate trained so possibly not - so not sure if he would use if we put them down, but a good suggestion and I might pop and get some.

@Moonshinerso If he wasn't going home tomorrow, I would. Sticking with a few dry biscuits for today

It's just whether to leave the garden door open or not!!!

Owner out of the country. Flying back in late tonight to collect in the morning. No point stressing her out about it now as there is nothing she can do.

Agghhhhhhh 😱😱😱😱

I’d get up every hour to let him out, but I don’t sleep anyway.

If you left the door open do you think the dogs would scare the rats away/keep them from coming in? Rats apparently hate mint and lavender, do you have anything you could spray at the door/in the garden?

Lab is really timid - he definitely won't scare Rats away
Our DDog would deffo shout at them if she saw them, but could easily sleep through an intruder getting in.

If it wasn't for DD being sure she saw two rats the other day, I would 100 percent leave back door open, but the thought of one being in the house is my worst nightmare.

I have some Lavender essential oil and could easily shred some fresh mint along the 'boundary' but what if it's one of those massive fuckers that isn't scared of anything??😳

Your last paragraph - that stuff won't keep them away at all I'm afraid. My pet rats love fresh mint and even chew it then brush it through their fur so they smell really good.

@BloodandGlitter good to. know. is there any smell they really dislike?

Vape smoke they smack my daughters vape, nail glue too but daughters rats also ate nail glue. They have really sensitive noses so anything strong and chemically they won't like. Your best bet with leaving the back door open is having absolutely no food smells. They're naturally wary of new spaces and if there's nothing to entice them in they're more likely to stick with their safe established routes.