15yr old dog no longer has a dry night

[forthelifeofpomme]

What can I do to help my lovely girl? She's pooing and pissing each night in the living room and has been now for a couple of months. So far I have tried: walking as late as I can at night (11pm ish), getting up early to let her out (around 6am) and changing the time she has her main meal. She gets regular walks throughout the day.
Sometimes she poos when we are on a walk and she might have a dry night. Sometimes not! Her poos are sometimes firm, sometimes soft - not sure if that's relevant.
She know's it's wrong, but I won't make a big deal of it as she's old. She gets a firm "Oh name of dog, this isn't good" in a no nonsense tone.
What can I do to help her use the walks as toilet time?

Have you taken her to the vet ?

She isn't doing it on purpose. She may not even know she is. Get some puppy pads for now, but I would take to the vet as soon as possible.

You need to take her to the vets.

She's a very old dog who is incontinent. It's absolutely pointless to tell her she's done wrong as if she can help it. Have you taken her to the vet?

My elderly dog became faecal incontinent at around 14. She would just poop in her sleep and not even wake up. No point telling her off (and she was dead anyway!). I just had to get up and clean it each night. She also lost the ability to hold it during the day so if she needed to go, you had about 10 secs to get her outside or it was too late.

Take her to the vet in case there's a reason such as a UTI that's causing it, but incontinence in dogs nearing the end of their life is quite common. Not nice to deal with, but part and parcel of owning dogs through the good times and the bad. We had another year of good quality of life with our girl after the incontinence started and I don't begrudge all those times I got up at 3am for one minute.

*Deaf, not dead

You need to take her to the vet. She is 15 years old and sounds incontinent. I don't want to be horrible but I would also prepare yourself for any bad news.

My dog is 14 and the same, we took him to the vet and it was a symptom of senility it's so sad but we just have to manage it. We do this by putting down puppy pads and containing him in a small area overnight. He normally just pees but does the odd poo. As previous poster said it's just part of having a dog and sadly they get older.

Likewise, my 14 year old JRT has muscle loss and very little control over his back legs and the rest of his rear end. He can hold a wee reasonably well (not brilliantly) but bowel control has largely gone. Vet says there’s nothing they can do, so we live with it & clean a lot. Just part of having an old dog.

We had this with our oldie, however it distressed him greatly to pee/poo in the house so we felt the kindest thing was to PTS (he was 19) by which time it was every night, despite us leaving the back door open till dark, then taking him out regularly till we went to be about midnight and letting him out again about 3-4am, he was SO upset by it.

If you have a utility room or other suitable space, you could buy a replacement cage tray (a tray that normally sits at the bottom of a dog cage) and cover it with newspaper. Encourage her to use it in the day, so she will know it's okay to use. Then leave the doors open to that room at night, so she can get to it whenever she wants.

My dog used this, but towards the end, also had no idea she had done a number two in her sleep and I didn't alert her to the fact, as it wasn't her fault.

I have read there is medication to help girl dogs with urinary incontinence and heard someone say it helped their dog for a whole extra year, so it really would be worth talking to the vet.