Patchy, about a year ago

Patchy is having more accidents in the house again.  She seems to go through phases where a couple days are just bad for her, and others are completely normal.  She had 2 accidents in the house yesterday (midday and late evening) and two this morning alone.  We also left her and Clover in the garage two evenings in a row when we went out to dinner.  She peed, and left a bloody drip trail behind.

Varying levels of blood is in her urine is expected.  I confirmed via email with the oncologist yesterday.  And her constant straining to pee is also in the norm.  As long as she still is urinating, we’re in good shape.  He told me, if she’s straining and not getting anything out, thats when we really need to worry.

She has no guilt or remorse when she lets go inside.  I honestly think she doesn’t realize she’s doing something wrong.  Her doggie Alzheimer’s probably has her thinking she’s outside, or that there’s nothing wrong with voiding your bladder inside.  And no one ever scolds her.  Its not like she needs potty training.  She’s been potty trained.  Her brain is just betraying that training and manners.  It’d be like yelling at your grandma for leaving the door open when she comes into the house.  She just forgot, yelling at her won’t change it the next time.

On the topic of accidents indoors, I bought some disposable and washable diapers from my local pet store.  We make sure to put one on whenever we come into the office, and the entire time she’s been in the house with me at my parents.  Originally, we were using the disposable everyday because I only had one washable, and was waiting to get a second.  Now that I have two washables, we use those more frequently.

The washables both fit better and do the job better.  The washables are a cotton blend of some sort, so they feel better on Patch, and they have elastic that helps them stay on and fitted.  The disposable are some papery thing (exactly like baby diapers) with an absorbent area for catching liquid.   Both feature tail holes. (Super important!)

While I already had a preference for the cotton ones because they stayed on better, it turns out, after unintentional testing, they also work better, too.  The cloth diapers have elastic around the tail hole, meaning the ‘pad’ can go right up to it, and there is little chance for liquid to dribble out the hole.  The paper diapers just have a gaping hole for the tail, and the pad kinda goes until the hole.  Problem is, in practice, when Patchy squats, the paper diaper’s tail hole lines up with the urine stream, and a good ~60%-80% just goes straight on the ground, missing the diaper entirely.  Talk about useless. The cloth diaper, not having a gaping hole, catches all the urine.  It tends to soak through pretty quick, but hasn’t once dripped or created a mess.  Especially not like the paper diaper.

If you’re in the market for doggie diapers, I recommend going the cloth, reusable route.  I’m doing more laundry, but I’m cleaning up less mess.  They fit her better and are more comfortable.  And, as my friends and coworkers have mentioned, “the blue [cloth diaper] looks more stylish”.