# Wet spots on the bed



## BobFromOmaha (Dec 24, 2007)

Hello All,

Our 9 yo black lab Java sleeps in the same bed as we do. She has very little history of wetting inside the house. When she does, she feels really bad about it.

As of last week we have discovered several wet spots on our bed over the course of 5 days. They are around 6" in diameter. At first I though it had to be coming from the ceiling, but the ceiling is dry.

The spots do not smell like urine and she does not seem to feel bad about it.

We took her to the vet and they took a quick look at a urine sample but nothing has turned up so far. We should know more soon.

She seems to be drinking more water than usual.

No big changes in diet (except we got her some greenies recently) and she appears to be acting the same as ever except for the wetting.

She's been known to drool in her sleep, but never this much. 

She hasn't been getting the attention she normally does- ie: walks and playing ball due to us being busy lately with the holidays, don't know if this is an attention thing or not. Normally she goes in dirty clothes hamper and gets one of our socks and throws it around to let us know she needs some attention. She has us trained well.

Thoughts?

Thanks to all,
Bob


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## Anela (Sep 8, 2007)

It could be a UI, which require testing to confirm. It could also be incontinence, my first suspicion, easily corrected with Proin pills. 

My dog is a leaker, had the same experience. I thought it was her wet nose until the spots got really big.

Try taking a look at her after she has been laying around for a while, you may see what looks like clear liquid coming out of her vulva (it's urine). If this is the case, it's probably incontinence. 

Anela


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## ChrissyBz (Aug 10, 2007)

Did your vet mention anything about spaying incontinence? I'm assuming she's spayed? Our black lab female does this but it's usually a LOT bigger than 6" I've read that it is fairly common in older female dogs. How often is this occurring?


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## IslandMutts (Jul 23, 2007)

Maybe she is licking her paw (or other body part) while laying on the bed? My dogs have done this before. They would lay on the bed and lick their paw for a good 20 minutes, which would cause them to drool excessively and leave a big wet spot.

Check her body for rashes or redness, especially the paws. Any evidence of excessive licking?


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## Willowy (Dec 10, 2007)

My first dog, Willow, had spay incontinence. Strangely, she stopped leaking when she was about 8 or so. I've heard that some dogs that have been leaky their whole lives will stop leaking after the age they would have normally gone through "menopause", and some dogs who were not previously leaky will start leaking after that age. That might be the problem. However, Willow always was embarrassed when she leaked. We kept doggy diapers on her most of the time---the meds the vet gave us didn't work. I thihnk there are better meds now. I also find wet spots where Penny sleeps, but they do not smell of urine, and her butt fur is not wet (Willow's butt was always soaking wet), so I think that's drool. She does lick her paws a lot. If your dog is drinking more, you might want to have her checked for diabetes. It's common in older dogs, especially if they're overweight.


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## BobFromOmaha (Dec 24, 2007)

ChrissyBz said:


> Did your vet mention anything about spaying incontinence? I'm assuming she's spayed? Our black lab female does this but it's usually a LOT bigger than 6" I've read that it is fairly common in older female dogs. How often is this occurring?


Yes, he did and she is spayed. regarding the frequency, we've probably seen 5 spots over the last 5 days.



Anela said:


> It could be a UI, which require testing to confirm.
> Anela


Thats what my wife thought, but the initial tests turned up nothing. They were going to go ahead have it cultured.



IslandMutts said:


> Maybe she is licking her paw (or other body part) while laying on the bed? My dogs have done this before. They would lay on the bed and lick their paw for a good 20 minutes, which would cause them to drool excessively and leave a big wet spot.
> 
> Check her body for rashes or redness, especially the paws. Any evidence of excessive licking?


She has been licking a lot lately, but it seems like its a little much for that.



Willowy said:


> If your dog is drinking more, you might want to have her checked for diabetes. It's common in older dogs, especially if they're overweight.


We thought of that too. Even though she is pretty trim, we will have her checked next time.



Thanks to everyone for their responses. It means a lot to us.


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## ChrissyBz (Aug 10, 2007)

BobFromOmaha said:


> Yes, he did and she is spayed. regarding the frequency, we've probably seen 5 spots over the last 5 days.
> 
> She has been licking a lot lately, but it seems like its a little much for that.


Well my 1 1/2 yo black lab definitely has SI and I give her Alfalfa for that. If it turns out to be SI I can give you a little more info on that.

We also have 3 lickers and they can wet a large area of the couch or bed in a very short period of time. Sometimes licking can be from boredom and sometimes it can have an underlying cause such as allergies or fungal infections. One of ours has corn allergies and 2 are bad habits from former fungal infections.

Keep an eye over the holidays and see what happens.


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## rogueslg71 (Dec 6, 2007)

she could be having some accidents in bed. it might not smell like urine because shes drinking lots more water than normal and it just makes the urine smell 'less'. also it takes a little while for bacteria to set in the urine and make it smell strongly (assuming nothing else is wrong)


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## Bascerballer4 (Oct 12, 2007)

It could be a urine infection, just as Anela has already state. This can be due to excess duration in the car or home. Since your dog is mainly indoors, make sure you take your dog out on walks frequently so your dog can can go relieve. Hope this helps.


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