It has gone so fast. Here she is as just a baby.
First, this is not our first rodeo with a dog in diapers. For those of you who have been following me for a longtime; you know that both Tilley and Jessie were in diapers in their senior years. We had two in diapers while my son and I made our way across the country with 4 dogs in December of 2011.
This all began just two days ago but has progressed quickly. Saturday morning as I tidied up Elsa and Riggs bed area I noticed the slight smell of pee. This was extremely unusual so I sort of had one of those big question marks over my head. Elsa came into the room and walked into her “bedroom” area. It is a corner in our room where we have three tempur pedic dog beds covered in a sheet and then covered in a fuzzy blanket. It’s super cozy and I have lay there several times in the beginning to show Riggs just how great it was. ;)
When Elsa came in she started to sniff around; and I immediately knew that there was pee on the bed then. Elsa told me. I tore off the blanket and sheet and examined the dog beds. It looked like two were wet just on the corner, so off the covers went and everything was washed and dried.
Saturday afternoon I pick up some boy underwear and pads. Something my females have worn through their heat and the beginning of incontinence over the years. We’d only noted pee in the bed once but if this was what was going to happen I wanted to be ready.
That evening my husband and I watched Muzzle with Elsa and Riggs of course. Even though the content was k9 heavy, it was just okay. Nothing to write home about. But, when the movie was over and we went to let Elsa and Riggs out for the night, there was a problem. The side of my husbands leg was wet. We tried to figure it out but it took a while. I didn’t even put the slight pee smell in the bed and the wet leg together, it was that new of a thing. Having just recovered from covid yet again, my sense of smell is not the greatest. And frankly my husband could barely detect the smell of urine. Sort of like the bed in the morning.
After a bit of investigation we figured it out. Elsa was outside taking her last pee before bed and when she came in her back leg that had been up against my husband during the movie was all wet. Elsa had leaked.
Saturday evening I cut a hole in a pair of the underwear, added two pads and put them to bed. I hoped it would be enough to keep Elsa dry; after all this had just begun so she should be good, right? Wrong.
I hoped for the best; but when we woke up the next morning, it all had to go back into the wash, everything except for one of the beds where Riggs had been. This has come on extremely fast. Before Friday morning there was no pee anywhere. In fact Elsa has been doing amazing with the uti’s that she’d been struggling with a while back. But, I did just receive the results for her extensive blood test that don’t look good.
I went back to Target and bought some human pullup diapers and some dog diapers. I’m looking into better ones so if anyone knows a brand that actually stay on and are very absorbent, please let me know. The pull ups have been the best so far. The dog diapers tend to undo and fall off which is useless. But after she got up this morning with her pullup still on and intact; it was clear why the underwear and small pads were not enough. The diaper was completely full and weighed a ton.
She has gone from no peeing ever to full on peeing at night. She seems good during the day so far; I’m doing lots of lift and look. I don’t want her to have to wear a diaper if she doesn’t need it during the day.
The reason we went to the vet a couple of weeks ago was that she was drinking a lot more water as of late. As well as her throat thing which I discussed on instagram. She is dealing with a lot right now; more than we’ve ever had in one dog. Her last ultrasound showed that one of her kidneys was small and shriveled. We don’t know why, when or how this happened. But both the vet and ourselves were happy that she had one good kidney; but it looks like maybe not now.
I do ultrasounds regularly after my dogs turn 10 years of age. I like to know that all is well in their vital organs and catch anything early. This ultrasound will be a fasted one on the morning of the 27th. We will know more then. But for now, I am researching my butt off; as I do when I need to know. I do know that her raised creatine level is very bad.
I will keep you posted and if anyone has questions or knows about better diapers or is a blood expert, I’d love to hear from you.