Hey all,

I'm new to the forum.  Please pardon the novel.  My fiance and I rescued a 3-4 year old Husky 2 years ago.  When we first saw her in her cage at the SPCA she was sitting in the very back, scared to move.  We believe she may have been beaten and/or verbally abused by her prior owner.  She was an owner surrender.  This was her the day we rescued her:


She has been an amazing pup and very quickly became part of our family.  She has eye issues (Neurological KCS) and is currently on 3 meds for her eyes including Cyclosporin/Tacrolimus drops, an ophthalmic steroid and artificial tears.

Lately she has been urinating on herself while sleeping.  She doesn't wake up when this happens.  We find out either by smell, she starts licking herself a bit afterward, or by feeling it on our feet if she's laying in bed or on the floor at our feet.

We live in Pennsylvania where it has been pretty hot (High 80's to 90's all summer long).  She drinks A LOT when we are both around.  It can be upwards of 2-3 regular size bowls a day.  If it's just one of us, either myself or my fiance, she tends not to drink too much unless it's pre/post walk.  She has always had unrestricted access to water, even at night in our bedroom.  Every night before bed she'd typically lap the water for over a minute straight.  When she drinks, she drinks!

The urinating started about a month ago.  It was confined to her bed in our bedroom at night.  I'd say maybe once or twice a week, though one week it was nearly every day.  She now does it less at night, but more when laying at our feet in the evening.  The other nights she does wake us up and I let her out.  She pees 2-3+ times, hunts some spiders in the grass, then comes back in.  The one thing that has changed is we switched from a basic water bowl over to a PetSafe Healthy Pet Water Station Dog and Cat Water System with Stainless Steel Bowl (320 oz).

Last week we went on vacation and brought her regular bowl.  All nightly urination after her last time we let her out for the night ceased.  She had no accidents.  Back at home the first night we were back (Sat), no issues.  Last night around 10:15 it happened again.  And tonight around 10:15 it happened.  We just changed back to her regular water bowl and have removed the water bowl from the bedroom in the hopes these help to resolve the issue.

We did take her to the vet for a UTI check. My fiance's sister is also a vet and we've been discussing this with her as well.  From my research I've found it could possibly be urinary incontinence of the spayed bitch.

Has anyone else experienced this with their Husky?  If so, what was it and what worked for you?

Thanks!

-R

Have not had the problem, do not know much but I do know that estrogen in females can sometimes be helpful.

As are diapers.

Welcome to the forum, I'm so glad you rescued her.

One totally different tangent - if she's drinking so much water, has anybody thought about diabetes?

Welcome. I have not experienced it, but I think the urinary incontinence issue in females is usually more of a leakage issue, not a full bladder release, but I could be wrong.

Not sure what opthalmic steriods are like, but I do know that other types of steroids can affect water intake and thusly increased urination. When my 3 year old boy got one time steroids for an issue a few months ago, he had a full on bladder release on the couch, we assume while sleeping. Only time he's ever done it. I called the vet and they said it was likely because of the steroids.