Night Time Urination/pooping

[christinepi]

We've had Tracker for 2.5 years and he's now going on 6 years. He never had to go out at night. About 6 weeks ago he asked to go out the first time. Then nothing for a week and a half or so, when he asked again. Then nothing again for a week, etc, until it started increasing to 2x a week and as of last night it was 2 nights in a row for the first time. So I'll get him to the vet before the weekend.

 

I can't tell whether it's pee only or both poop and pee, since it's too dark to see (I can hear the peeing). During the day, it's all normal, no increase. The first poop is always firm, then later, the poop gets a little more soft than normal.

 

About 8 weeks ago, I put him on a high quality kibble that had grains in it. Two weeks later, he had the above described first night time incident. I took him off the food, and put him back on his regular, grain free kibble. But now I'm thinking this had nothing to do with the grains, but is something else, maybe UTI?

 

He otherwise eats normally, has plenty of energy, basically unchanged. No loss of weight.

 

Any thoughts?

[Guest BrianRke]

My dogs get me up between 2am - 4am EVERY night. To me it does not sound like a food or medical problem. I think this is just becoming his "schedule".

[MP_the4pack]

I have a dog door and I hear my girls go out in the middle of the night. (I'm a very light sleeper so I hear them go out)

[christinepi]

We've been to the vet and she said to do a 24 hour measuring how much he drinks and also to get 4 urine samples during 24 hours. She feels it's not a UTI, but will check.

 

If that all checks out fine, I'll get a dog door. This new development has me crawling on all fours, since I'm an insomniac already, but Tracker wakes me up WHEN I'm sleeping. Not good.

[JJNg]

I'm wondering this might have started due to the food change and, for whatever reason, is just becoming a habit? Any chance there's something waking him up at night, like stray cats outside or wildlife activity?

 

Especially if everything checks out medically, I'd try a longer walk right before bedtime to make sure he empties. Have you tried telling him to go back to sleep and see if he will? If he keeps asking to go out, I wouldn't risk an accident, but if he's just restless and doesn't really need to go, that might work. Make sure the trips outside are just business, with no extra attention or reward. When any of my dogs wake me up in the middle of the night (rare), we go out, potty, quick verbal praise, and right back to bed. They usually get a treat when we come back in, but I don't do this for middle of the night trips outside.

[christinepi]

At one point there was a raccoon he barked at. But only once. Maybe it's becoming a habit, I've wondered that, too. But I'm too afraid to just tell him to go back to sleep, in case there really IS a reason (at one point I lay in bed, waiting and HOPING he'd stop whining, but he didn't, so I got up). It's just going to be a few more days until I collected his urine, and then we'll see. THEN if he checks out ok I'll be more "deaf". I'll also definitely, as of tonight, take him out on leash, outside of the back yard, and actually walk him a bit. I can never really tell what he does when he's out alone in the backyard because it's simply too dark and without glasses I don't see much anyway.

 

He doesn't ever seem restless when I open the door. He seems relieved to see me and, on his own, right away, turns and heads straight to the door.