# Diabetic dog urinating everywhere...



## phixion (Jan 10, 2016)

Hello,

I have a 10 year old Yorkshire Terrier dog suffering from Arthritis, Cushing's Disease and Diabetes.

He is urinating everywhere. He will stand at an open door and won't go out, turns around and urinates on the carpet. If I put him outside, he stands there looking at me, then walks in and pees on the carpet.

He will urinate in one place and whilst I'm cleaning it up he does it again somewhere else.

I'm spending a small fortune on those "puppy" training pads to cover the lounge floor as he will urinate up to 6 times in a night. I have to overlap them to make sure it doesn't seep into the carpet and sometimes he takes out 3 pads in 1 go.

I'm aware dogs suffering both Cushing's and Diabetes drink/urinate a lot, and I know that the Cushing's actively fights against Insulin. I take him for blood sugar tests on a regular basis at the vets and they usually ask how his drinking/urination is, but never seem to have a solution.

I'm not sure whether he is getting enough insulin, he started on 1.5IU 2 times a day and is now at 4IU 2 times a day (8IU per day total), I know that Cushing's can diminish the effects of insulin. He is always on the high side of blood sugar levels too.

I also think that the puppy pads are making him lazy, he doesn't like going out in the rain/cold and thinks it's okay to go indoors.

Not sure what to do now, I've gone through so many cans of Vanish carpet cleaner and Shake n Vac... The carpets needs ripping out and replacing but whilst he doing this I can't see the point.

Do you think I should speak to the vet about upping his insulin dose? Would it help? Any other ideas?

Many thanks.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

One of my dogs did have cushings disease and when hers wasn't controlled she would drink excessively and pee in large quantities and often just lose control too and flood the place. Diabetes as you know already also makes them drink and pee more. She was on vetoryl for the cushings and was closely and regularly monitored and on that she was fine and all the excessive drinking and peeing stopped. She was tested also regularly for diabetes as it can come together and older dogs can be more prone to developing diabetes anyway. Is he just on Insulin or vetoryl too? Without checking I'm not sure if its possible for them to take both insulin and vetoryl anyway.

What also tends to happen with cushings especially uncontrolled is that it also seems to make them prone to urinary tract infection, has the vets checked that he hasn't got a urinary tract infection too, as when she developed those from time to time until they were treated that used to make her pee in large amounts and lose control too. They also used to check every time she went in for her cushings monitoring ACTH test every three months, her kidney and liver function as well.

It would perhaps be worth speaking to your vet about testing (don't know how long ago he last had tests?) and see if it offers up any clues as to whats going on and if anything can be done medication wise to try to control things better.

The pads though may not be helping. Often when you are trying to toilet train the use of pads can confuse things, as it can give the message that inside the house is an acceptable place to go, and often when you are using them with toilet training, getting rid of them, and concentrating soley and regularly on the outside toilet training solves the issue. Some dogs when pads are used also can tend as well as going inside, start going on anything that resembles a pad in shape like rugs or the soft padded texture like carpets and soft furnishings.

If he can smell where he has been too then that often doesn't help as the smell of the pee can encourage them to go more inside in the same rooms or areas.
A lot of the carpet cleaner manufacturers do carpet shampoos for homes with pets so cleaning the carpet with something like that may help. You can also get special pet stain/odour removers too for cleaning up the accidents that removes the smell. There is one called urine off amongst others.

http://www.urine-off.co.uk/

A lot of it though may well be his conditions that are contributing too it, so a review may be a good place to start. If your not totally happy with the vets you are at now, sometimes a second opinion is often a good idea, sometimes a new vet who will be a new set of thoughts and experience of a problem is a help.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

Have had a quick look and there are some links/articles on treating dogs who has both diabetes Melitus and cushings. It might offer some help and ideas depending on whats being done at the moment.

http://veterinarycalendar.dvm360.co...-cushingoid-diabetic-dog-proceedings?pageID=1

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7009530


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## phixion (Jan 10, 2016)

Thank you for the reply.

Yes he is already on Vetoryl, as well as Vetmedin and Metacam. He has long burnt through the £5,000 insurance limit for all of his illnesses, he went blind all of a sudden so had to have cataracts removed... that was another £3,200.

He used to have regular blood tests at our old vets but it was becoming far too expensive, the problem was, that vet wouldn't prescribe his medication without it. That, along with the discovery we were paying twice as much for medication as we should have been pushed us to look for a new vet, we now use Vets4Pets (inside pets at home) and with the 10% pensioner discount the prices are comparable to online. He now has a blood sugar test every few months, but not the expensive test that seemed to be a requirement at our old vets. Maybe it's time for one though to see what's going on.

I will get in touch with the vet and see what he wants to do.

I too think the pads are confusing the situation, but as it stands, without them the carpet would be sodden in the morning.

I'll check out that urine-off, honestly I want to rip the carpets out and get new because I dread to think of how the house smells, but with the current situation it seems like a waste of time and money.

Thanks again!


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## Burrowzig (Feb 18, 2009)

You could confine him at night to a puppy pen with a bed inside it, floor under it covered with a piece of thick polythene sheeting or tarpaulin, few layers of newspaper over that, a puppy pad if you think it'll help. Won't fix his condition but should help save the carpet. Or you could try a large cat litter tray within the pen; some dogs take well to using them.


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## Lurcherlad (Jan 5, 2013)

I would have him and his meds checked again as they may need altering.

Any odour from past episodes will draw him back to those areas again and again. 

From a practical point of view, i replaced my hall carpet with lino when I first had my rescue dog as he had a few accidents and that helped a lot. You can get some quite good faux wood look ones relatively cheaply and they are easy to lay yourself. That could be laid even in the living room, with washable rugs for a bit of comfort. I would prefer that than wet, smelly carpets 

That would get rid off the old smells and make it easier to keep the floors clean in future. 

Maybe restrict his area for those times you can't react quickly to prevent an accident. Some people use a portable play pen which can be put anywhere in the house, can be as big as you like so you could place it on top of a waterproof surface to protect the floor, with his bed in and even pads if needed, so he isn't isolated.

I would put a coat and lead on him and walk him in the garden or round the block often to encourage him to wee outside.


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