Nine-month-old Puppy wetting the bed in her sleep

Our Daisy is thoroughly house-broken but has now twice wet the bed in her sleep. She seems to be blissfully unaware that she's done it--she doesn't even move away from it when she wakes up. Her little behind is even wet from it, and she doesn't notice. But this is our bed she does it in so we're kind of desperate to find a solution.

Has anyone ever heard of such a thing? She is spayed, by the way, but she's perfectly healthy as far as we can tell. The two events were three weeks apart, so it shouldn't be a bladder infection or anything like that. Could she simply be so sound asleep that she can't wake up to know she needs to pee? This is more like a little kid than a nine-month-old puppy! But she is more like a kid than a dog, so that fits.
Advice or experience, please?

Thanks,
Jane, mother o'Daisy

 

Wylie used to do that. I think it was because she played so much and so hard then exhaust herself , be out like a light, and because she forgot to pee, she would di it in her bed, going to the bathroom is almost like ke an afterthought to her. I would make sure she is going pee before bed time

honeybear

 

And perhaps also limit her water intake past a certain time at night - say an hour or two before bedtime. And make sure she pees before bed, as honeybears said.


Jamiya

 

Jersey did this till she was over a year old, except, when she woke up, she would look at us very sad until we noticed the puddle! It was almost always on our futon in the evening (thankfully the futon had a thick blanket on it "just in case"!) and she was always deeply asleep when it happened. She grew out of it, just like kids do, about 100 loads of laundry later! I always felt so bad for her, gotta be tough being a bed-wetter. If it happened in their room at night, Serene would make her lie on the floor and not share her blanket, which seems so silly now b/c now that's she's grown out of it, they only use 1 blanket. I guess Serene was trying to help train her, not much fun sleeping on linoleum after you've wet yourself!

 

Thanks for the reponses!

This is something I had NEVER heard of before, so I was quite confused and worried about it. I feel much better now. This is the most child-like dog I've ever known. I guess we'll just add this characteristic to the list!

J

 

My dd's dog did this!! I was so concerned that I took her to the vet. The vet said that she played too hard during the day that she was in a DEEP sleep and did not know what she was doing. The dog is now 3 and has not done this in a LONG time. Maybe just put a towel under the dog and it will help soak up the pee. Also you might want to put plastic under half of the sheet at the foot of your bed to protect your matress.

 

My mom's great dane also use to go in his sleep she went to several different vets because she was so sure something was wrong with him but each one told her he was perfectly healthy and that maybe he was dreaming when he went pee.

 

take your dog to the vet to rule out any problems. bladder infections are a cause of dogs weeing in their sleep.

 

I put a doona down on the floor so Leela could sleep at my feet while I was working, and I looked down at her after a bit and she was lying in a big puddle of pee. She woke up and kept lying there... I was annoyed coz I'd just washed that doona! She did it again in the lounge room on the blanket in there also. They are the only times she has done it I think- her normal bed is dark brown and I never see patches on it, it doesn't smell like urine so I'm hoping she hasn't done it on that. She moves around and whimpers alot when she is asleep,and her paws flex as though she is dreaming she is running. I thought maybe she just dreamt she was peeing too.
I now take her outside regularly and make sure she goes, especially before bed, and if I wake in the night I'll take her out then aswell.

 

Thanks to all for the responses!

Now, my excellent vet has checked Daisy's urine for a bladder infection and found nothing and so has me giving her a pheno drug--a diet pill-type drug that has been taken off the market for human use but it's one of those available for vet use for spayed females who have lost muscle tone and therefore sphincter control of the urinary tract. This, she says, will have fewer side effects than the alternative, which is female hormone replacement. She says it's not unheard of for a very young female to have this problem and we may well have to treat her all her life for it.

My quandary is this: If this is something she may grow out of, am I possibly harming her by treating her with a drug therapy now that may set her up for NOT growing out of it naturally OR am I helping her bridge the gap until she can hold it for herself so she can continue to sleep with us in our beds?

Anyone with experience/knowledge to help?

JW

 

oh my, I dont know how to comment on this. since she doens have an infection and she has only done it a few times, I would not put on medication. I would try to do some of the sugggestions by making sure she goes to the bathroom first, taking water away from her in the eve. as you have read here there are some of us who have experienced this first hand wiht puppies.

And tehn giving her a drug that was taken off the market for people - my vote is no way

honeybear

 

I have to say that I would not medicate for something at this point. She has only done it a couple times and with so many people saying their dogs outgrew it, I would be inclined to wait - especially if the drug is questionable!


Jamiya

 

I have to agree. Just because we have the drug doesn't mean we have to use it. We're going to give her a chance to grow out of this with our help.

We'll put extra coverings on things and watch her more closely and take the water up and put the toilet lids down and everythign else. We'll just need to buy a rubber-backed mattress pad for our new king-sized mattress! She does sleep with all of us at diffrent times of the night!
Thanks for your recommendations. We'll try the medications if we have to after she's had time to work this out with our help.

JW

 

at nine months old she should have grown out of it by now. females do lose muscle tone etc after being spayed. id have to go against the advice of everyone and say try the meds. you can trial it for a couple of months and then see what happens when you stop it. you already know what happens without medication so you may as well try it. its no fun cleaning up messes everytime your dog goes to sleep. the wee can also damage the fur and skin as well.

 

The two events were three weeks apart. I'd clean up a small puddle once every three weeks rather than giving a medication - safe or not - to my dog. People are too quick to push the medication button, and too easy to convince that the meds are "harmless". No medicine is harmless. It's always better if you can do without.


Jamiya

 

I would wait on the medicine to. My mom's great dane I talked about in my earlier post is a male and he wet himself a couple of times during his sleep but after he hit a year old he never did it again. Maybe she is just dreaming when it happens? Humans do it my son has done it on several occasions while dreaming so why not dogs?

 

Actually, it wasn't once the second time--it happened twice more after my inital post that second day. However, after we started controlling her water and watching her carefully, she didn't do it again. That's why we're trying it without the med first. If it happens a couple more times with the human controls, we'll go to the med.

J

 

Just want to add one more note in case someone else faces this problem: I spoke to my vet this morning about the potential for the drug to keep Daisy from growing out of her problem naturally, and she said that would not be a problem. She also said the drug would not necessarily be a permanent thing. We could use it for a while to help Daisy over her problem and then wean her off of it after a few moinths.

So if the problem recurs, we could use this as a temporary help. Not so bad after all! However, we don't seem to need it so far! But it's there in case someone has a worse problem than what we seem to have.

JW