Pee Pads...

sillysally

Is there training we need to with her or will she just know to use them if she has to pee from the scent that is in them (someone told me they have a smell that attracts dogs)?

They do have a pheromone to attract the dog, yes, but if she has trouble there are ways of encouraging her onto it.  Or, there's those potty-patch things that look like grass - I've seen them at Petco on clearance, but I have no idea how well they work.

Have you thought about putting them by the door she normally uses to go outside?  Or does she only have access to your bedroom?  If only the bedroom, I'd opt for the sunporch, too, partly because it implies the outdoors and not your "den" in the form of your bed and bedroom.

Hugs!!  Too bad there isn't a dog walker to help you out so you didn't have to go this route.

Christina, I found myself using pee pads due to Agnes's incontinence.  She is confined to one area (a bedroom and hallway) when I am at work.  To solve the problem of pee pads on the carpet, mostly in case she missed a pad, I put a vinyl carpet runner down in the hallway and then I put the pee pads over it.  She would get off her bed and go in the hallway anyway, so she picked it up in no time, that it was okay to pee in the hallway on the pads if she couldn't hold it.  There have even been times when I am home and the gate is not up, I miss seeing her by the door, she will go to the hallway and pee on the pad.  And when I pick up the soiled pads, I can wipe down the runner, carpet stays dry.  Maybe something like this will work for Sally.

Just a word of caution -- leave her TONS of water (one of the reasons for the thirst is nature's way of "rinsing out the body" because the pred is hard on the kidneys).  You want to encourage her to drink ALL she wants.

However -- at the same time, pred can play nasty tricks. 

It *completely* depends on the individual but pred can sometimes mess with the muscles.  Some dogs will tremble or get weak.  However, it can also really mess with the urinary tract muscles/bladder muscles. 

I experienced this myself (sorry TMI, I Know) but it will literally *sometimes* make it impossible for them to relax/release the muscle that allows them to pee -- they GOTTA go, have bladder pressure out the ying yang, but can't "go".    Finally you give up, walk 10 -30 feet and suddenly it's like those messages finally get TO those muscles and blam -- they release and an accident happens. 

 My point is this -- yes, do some training (in fact, if you find an accident, clean it up but put the paper towels ON a pee pad and show it to her and tell her "If you gotta go Sally, use this!";) -- but don't be dismayed if she doesn't/can't.  It can be hugely frustrating to try so hard and have your muscles literally disregard what you've told them to do.

Therefore (therefore?  Callie are you a danged legal secretary or something?  *rolling eyes* SHEESH)

therefore -- you might want to gate her into an area that can be pretty well covered. 

Part of it is that they get SO thirsty on the pred that they're drinking 6 times what they normally do anyway so having to pee can be a constant state. 

But like I said -- pred can be really tricky like that -- and you probably won't see it at first.

ALSO  -- doooooooo use tons of milk thistle.  Not only can pred damage the liver, it is unbelievably hard on the kidneys.  But milk thistle in *high* doses actually also helps protect the kidneys somewhat.

You've kinda missed the gigantic thread on IMHA (like 160 pages now I think?) -- and there is TONS of discussion on there about milk thistle and the various other things.  There IS a pharmaceutical - Marin -- but you can't use that in high doses (and it is wicked expensive).  There's also a pharmaceutical version of SAM-e (which is more a liver detox than a 'protectant' -- but it's darned good at it) called Denosyl.  They're both made by the same company that does Adequan.

If you want to know more email me -- because I've 'been there done that' with pred MANY times and Billy was on it for six months (and the other big drugs longer than that but his kidneys started to become damaged so we had to get him off pred).  But I've had to get REALLY good at mitigating damage from the pred. 

It's one of those drugs that can be an awesome help -- but it can also be a complete p.i.t.a. because the side effects can be such a bugger. 

Good for you for thinking ahead!!! It will help a lot.

Well, the bedroom is the sleeping and eating area so I'm *hoping* that this will encourage her to go out into the sun room for potty.  We could confine her to the sun room if necessary, but I'd really like to avoid that since she has a bit of separation anxiety and the bedroom is kind of her "happy place" and I don't want to stress her unnecessarily by locking her in a room she normally doesn't spend much time in while we're away.  The good news is that the carpet is actually tiles rather than one big roll of carpeting and we bought extra tiles, so if worse comes to worse and she misses the pads occasionally we can replace them if necessary.

 She has been on pred before, many moons ago when we first took her in.  She got kicked in the head by a horse and had a mild concussion and they put her on it.  I remember her having an accident or two, but she wasn't fully housebroken at the time either, so it's hard to say if that was contributing....

I suspect, tho, that the duration she'll have to be ON pred is far different than for something like an injury.  Not sure what the timetable would be but you might want to ask the vet what they foresee.

 The vet said likely 5-7 weeks.  We are not going to start it right away since it will impede the healing of her foot, so we are at least going to try to train her to them.  If we have to close her in the sun room we will, we'll just have to see how it plays out.  DH was looking at those grass oatch thingies.  Ever use those?