I’m just wondering if anyone has experience of the following, I’d be interested in outcomes (apologies for length trying to be detailed):
I own a 9 year old Pomeranian who is impeccably house trained, never has accidents ever. A couple of weeks before Christmas he started sporadically urinating in the house, by sporadically we’re talking once or twice a day with a gap of 2 sometimes 3 days clear before the next accident(s), always in the same places, on the sofa / on the landing / on my bed 😭 and always when I wasn’t home. Given the time between incidents and always the same places it almost comes across as behavioural but nothing has changed at home or in routine to trigger a behaviour change. A few days before Christmas he urinated 3 times on the same day (the most yet, one of which I was actually there for this time) so I got him into the vets. The vet agreed it definitely sounded behavioural rather than medical but given that cystitis is not uncommon in dogs his age and in the absence of any triggers and so close to Christmas and having not been able to get a urine sample she decided to treat precautionally. He was put on metacam, Synulox (antibiotics) & some urinary health tablets on a 7 day course. From that day not a single accident in the house so logic dictated to me that there had most likely been an infection that had now cleared, all sorted, yay! Fast forward 3 weeks and 1 day and he literally came up to me on the sofa, semi lay down behind me and started to urinate on the sofa, I ushered him off the sofa and he legged it upstairs to his bed and continued to urinate on that but held it in whilst running from the living room too his bed which would indicate some degree of control. 3 days passed with no accidents. Late yesterday morning (day 4) he was just lay on my bed with me chilling out but awake when he suddenly leaped of the bed and ran off almost cowering with his tail down between his legs which I found very bizzare, I jumped up to follow him to see if he was ok / wanted to go out to the loo and he was lay crouched on the stairs, I said ‘come on’ and called him down to let him outside only to notice he was leaving wet paw prints on the floor, I put him out and went back to the stairs and no wet patch then my heart sank, he’d pee’d on my bed! (Brand new expensive feather duvet only bought a week ago 😭) He didn’t get up to indicate he needed to go out like he normally would but was also clearly aware he’d done it. For a small dog the amount of urine during these episodes is quite substantial, the urine is highly diluted in these instances and doesn’t have a strong or distinctive urine smell to it. Never any issues overnight. I was there both these last times, nothing has happened at the time to trigger this, nothing has changed in the household either but symptom wise it isn’t typical of what you’d expect for something like a UTI. Everything I’ve read on google and in my nursing text books references frequent straining with little passed or frequent urination in large volumes but I can find nothing about large volumes only sporadically. I haven’t noticed him drinking any more than normal but temporarily shut him in a room on his own with a measured out bowl of water that the cats can’t access to try and determine his actual water intake which at 100ml in 18 hours was within normal parameters. I took a fresh urine sample to be tested this morning (first pee of the day), the results have come back ‘unremarkable’ no markers for infection / no blood, no glucose nothing. The vet I spoke with today says the fact his morning sample is concentrated indicates the kidney function is ok, he too is stumped and also thinks it sounds more behavioural. I’ve requested a full blood panel be done anyway for my own peace of mind and he is booked in for next week.
The problem is, if this is behavioural how do I tackle it without being able to identify any possible trigger and it being so sporadic and no warning he’s about to do it? Its very frustrating. I have had to hire a carpet & upholstry cleaner, I feel mean because he normally sleeps in my room but I have had to put a gate on the stairs to prevent him going upstairs so he can’t pee on the carpets or my bed.
If you made it to the end, thank you!