My old man

[Threelittleducks]

Hi there,

I have a 14/15 year old JRT (the love of my life). He is in relatively great health for his age - still quite active, considering, and although looking a bit tired and old, is still going strong.

This morning I found a LOT of poo in my dc's room, which is extremely unusual - he is usually so very good and always asks to go out. We were out early this morning, very briefly - I ran my dh to work, which only took 20 mins at the most - and I am presuming he did it in this time.
I noticed that he peed on the carpet last night too - again an extremely unusual thing for him to do. He acts all mortified if he defecates anywhere other than outside, bless him.

I'm not sure if it's the fault of us just not paying attention to him needing out as often (although he's usually not short on telling us - loud bark!) or if there is something else up. I am hoping this is all just a one off, but I stupidly googled and got all kinds of stuff about kidney failure etc! EEk!!

Of course, I am aware of his age and the senior happenings etc, but I suppose I am really terrified that this is the beginning of the end. Am in tears just thinking about it.

Please tell me I am panicking over nothing and we just need to make sure he goes out more...

He has been eating fine, drinking fine etc.

I hate when pets get old :(

Have to say I'm not keen on taking him to the vet as 1. He is terrified of vets and I really don't want to put him through this if it isn't necessary and 2. We are super skint and our vet is a bloody daylight robber who likes to charge crazy prices for treatment that pets often don't need!

If he is eating and drinking normally and is otherwise perky, and this is the only occurrence, I'd put it down to a tummy bug or an accident. But if it happens again, then I'm sorry, I would take him to the vet. On a positive note, it might not be kidney problems at all, but he could have a UTI for instance, which could be easily cleared up with a course of ABs.

The thing is at this age, he is going to find it hard to fight off minor illnesses that a younger dog would sail through - his recovery time will be longer too. So, (and this is not what you want to hear) I would be taking him to the vet much, much faster than I would a younger dog.

We have older dogs ourselves (eldest is currently 12) and recently lost a 13 year old so know exactly what you are going through.

If you are genuinely unhappy with your vets, why not change practice?

Also, if he finds going to vet v stressful, try asking the practice if you can have the last appointment of the day, so he is not going to be waiting with lots of other creatures. Most vets are very understanding about this. With one of our dogs, who was a bit stressed, we would let the nurses know we'd arrived, and then wait quietly outside, till vet was ready, then nurse would give us a shout, thus minimising time spent in scary waiting room.

Good luck!

Hi Ducks, could it be something he ate?

Just recently we had some building work going on and our neighbour's dog ate some of the building sand and went inside and the door shut. We came back twenty minutes later to massive poos on my brand new kitchen floor.

Your dog is a lot older, so it might be something scary, but it could also be a one-off. Could you monitor for a couple of days first, if your dog seems ok in other respects?

I can relate to vet costs, we have had a lot of these recently over minor stuff and regular check-ups. But in our case, our vet is a darling and we know she provides a lot of free care to other animals.

Thank you for being nice and not thinking I'm crazy! Ha ha! I am so so cared of The End and every little thing now just makes me jump to conclusions.

I did remember that I gave him Wonky Chomps over the weekend and the --greedy bugger had 2 at once! Hoping it's just this.

Thanks for the advice re: vets. :) I have cheered up a little!

Could he have eaten something you don't know about? Our, now sadly deceased, old dog once ate a whole tub of fat balls DH had bought for the birds and left outside - he wasn't ill but there were lots of funny looking enormous poos in the garden for a couple of days.