grey14me Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 I am pupsitting a dog that has some hind end issues. I wanted to ask here to see what people might think it is or recommendations they might have so that I can give the owner some ideas about either, where to look on the internet or what to ask the vet. anyway, this is an older female...I believe she's going to be 13 in March. this morning, she'd already been in the backyard and peed and was brought in to be fed. then she goes out to poo right after eating...that's her normal routine anyway. so I had her food prepared and she was milling about me waiting for me to put her food bowl it its holder. as I'm walking to the other side of the kitchen I notice her hind end dip slightly and I was worried that she was falling (she has fallen before, although not while I was here), so I scooted up behind her to catch her and it turned out that she was actually pooping. it was really just falling out of her and she continued to walk to her bowl and eat like everything was normal. I am thinking this is the first time this has happened because the owner didn't mention it to me. so, knowing that I have to tell her, I'd also like to give her some ideas about what might be going on. can anyone help? oh, and I have noticed that it is normal for her to squat very low when peeing, basically her hind end touches the ground and she does also continue to walk while pooing in the backyard. she definitely doesn't seem to be in any kind of pain at all. Quote Michelle...forever missing her girls, Holly 5/22/99-9/13/10 and Bailey 8/1/93-7/11/05 Religion is the smile on a dog...Edie Brickell Wag more, bark less :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KennelMom Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 Erin used to do this as she got older - IIRC it started around 13-14 years of age. Sometimes is was like she wasn't even aware she was pooping as she was walking around or she all of a sudden got surprised by the fact that she had to poop. I think it might just be part of the aging process. There was nothing medically wrong with Erin that caused her poo issues. Sometimes she'd even poo in her sleep. I never made a deal about it at all. Just clean it up and go on with life. I knew she wasn't doing it on purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burpdog Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 I had to smile as she so reminds me of Heart! Joint Health by Springtime Inc. will make a big difference. Also chiropractic Quote Diane & The Senior Gang Burpdog Biscuits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tenderhearts Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 I would definitely suggest a thorough checkup by the vet for the old girl. Lori Ann was also a very low squatter when peeing as her hind end got worse. We had her on a glucosamine supplement with MSM in it. I also noticed in about the last year that she was with us, I really had to watch for any indication that she needed to go out as she would often walk into the kitchen, and if I wasn't right behind her to open up the back door, she'd circle and poop as she walked on the linoleum. I think she just couldn't wait at all once the urge to poop hit. A vet could best assess if this is just a muscular/skeletal problem as opposed to a neurological problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest act2redux Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 I have just recently started having the same kind of thing happen to my 13 yr. old Shepard. She has arthritis in her hips, so is wobbly when she pees...has started looking like she could topple over occasionally. I have noticed that she seems to compensate for this by squatting lower...all I can think is that lower posture is less painful than the one she used for years. She is also occasionally getting incontinent. Sometimes she seems to know and feel bad about it..."OOooppss" other times she seem oblivious to the poop dropping out of her butt. I chalk it up to old age and move on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grey14me Posted January 31, 2008 Author Share Posted January 31, 2008 Heather, what is IIRC? so, it sounds like it is mostly a normal aging issue. I am assuming she's been to the vet about it because the owner has previously mentioned arthritis issues, plus I can see that her toes are a bit more swollen looking than normal, which I believe is arthritis related. I was first thinking LS, but when I looked it up it didn't really seem to fit because of the total lack of pain. I will tell her what happened and suggest the supplements and chiro Quote Michelle...forever missing her girls, Holly 5/22/99-9/13/10 and Bailey 8/1/93-7/11/05 Religion is the smile on a dog...Edie Brickell Wag more, bark less :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest loveagrey Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 Chorney has the same issues. She has no idea that she's pooping - we just deal with it. It's sad and unfortunate, but what can you do. I'm sure I'll be popping my pants at some point in life too. Our vet has said that there really isn't a whole lot we can do. It's a quality of life thing now, as it will progress. Hugs to the old girl from us! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KennelMom Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 Heather, what is IIRC? If I recall correctly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grey14me Posted January 31, 2008 Author Share Posted January 31, 2008 Heather, what is IIRC? If I recall correctly omg, duh! I thought it was some new disease I hadn't heard of Quote Michelle...forever missing her girls, Holly 5/22/99-9/13/10 and Bailey 8/1/93-7/11/05 Religion is the smile on a dog...Edie Brickell Wag more, bark less :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest KennelMom Posted January 31, 2008 Share Posted January 31, 2008 Heather, what is IIRC? If I recall correctly omg, duh! I thought it was some new disease I hadn't heard of :lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Spiff Posted February 1, 2008 Share Posted February 1, 2008 I was first thinking LS, but when I looked it up it didn't really seem to fit because of the total lack of pain. I will tell her what happened and suggest the supplements and chiro Actually, LS isn't always accompanied by pain or it might be difficult to tell if the dog is IN pain... Also, if she is already getting medication for arthritis, then she might not feel pain from LS anyway. Spiff has trouble with fecal incontinence exactly in the same way. It's as if he doesn't realize that he has to poop until it's too late to rush outside. It's definitely something that the vet should check out. In talking with people about LS treatments, some mentioned that treating LS with depo-medrol injections helped decrease fecal incontinence. We are going to try depo-medrol injections again with Spiff to see if it helps him, because he's had a lot of trouble recently with fecal incontinence. It is something that has sort of come and gone for about a year now, but recently has gotten more frequent. Anyway, LS certainly isn't the only reason why fecal incontinence might happen. Supplements and chiropractic treatments can also help if it is LS, so it can't hurt to try them. It could be that nothing can be done except to quietly clean up. Poor Spiff gets very upset when he accidently poops in his bed or in the house, so we try to be very low key about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest PinkDog Posted February 2, 2008 Share Posted February 2, 2008 My solution was to let any old dog out as soon as they got up out of bed, even if it was a dozen times a day. They never seemed to mind wandering around in the yard for a few minutes, even if they didn't have to go. When I would come home to find poopies, I'd put the dogs out and clean while they were outside. I was hoping to avoid embarrassing them...that they'd just think the poop fairy had come and swept it all away. At night, we used old hand towels and stuff on their beds, so that if someone had an accident, we could just pull out that hand towel, dump the stuff in the toilet, toss the towel in the laundry bin, and be done with it. My old Deoji would be asleep, and you'd see his tail coming up, up, up reeeeally slow, and you knew it was about to happen. Funny how these things become really endearing, huh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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