[rannmiller]

My little 1 1/2 year old dog, Joey (corgi, queensland heeler, beagle mix), has this weird thing where every two weeks or so he will have to poop in the middle of the night (when normally he can hold just fine it until I wake up). Usually his jingling of tags will alert me to this and I'll let him outside in time, but a few times now, he's just pooped on my floor. Usually two soft, light-colored piles (sorry if that's TMI, but I thought the more thorough the explanation the better). They usually don't have too strong of an odor and he acts perfectly fine, normal, and healthy aside from this and like I said, it usually only happens once every two weeks.

I know I should probably just take him to a vet, but I thought I would check on here first for any suggestions before they try to pump him full of medicine and do expensive tests that will inevitably rape my college wallet (which I'm more than willing to have happen, don't get me wrong).

Thank you in advance!

 

[BabyHusky]

I'm sure that you've already thought of all this, but is there any treat or something you do differently every 2 weeks? If theres absolutely nothing and you're really concerned, I would just take the fecal to be tested. Better than having them start charging you like crazy.

 

[RawFedDogs]

I would have a fecal done. If all is ok, I would teke him outside just before i went to bed each night and give him a chance to relieve himself. I like the idea of thinking what is different on the nights of the accidents.

You might consider getting him a crate to sleep in at night. You could put it right beside your bed. He is much less likely to poop in a crate unless you get one real large. It should be just big enough for him to stand up, stretch out, and turn around.

 

[rannmiller]

All good advice, I'll try to think about what I might have given him that was different that day. The weirdest part about last night was he woke me up at 1:30 am so I let him out and he pooped. And I was so happy thinking he'd be fine and sure enough, 5:30 am rolls around and I wake up but not in time, he's already pooped. So he definitely had ample opportunity to get it out of him earlier. Ugh.

 

[BabyHusky]

Hmm...yea I would get the fecal testing....just in case. If you're anything like me, I'm sure you're going to keep wondering what's going on and worry. better to get it done and over with. =)

 

[Guest]

I think this one is for a vet. It doesn't have to be expensive.

I learned to ask vets when they want to do a test "What will that tell us?" and "What would the treatment be depending on the test results?"

Once my vets all wanted to send me to UT to have expensive tests done to see if my Dalmatians seizures were epilepsy or neurological. I asked my questions and the answer was that Penobarbitol was the treatment for either.

Well, then what do I care what it is? Plus I never would use Penobarbitol anyway.

Does your dog scoot his bottom on the floor at all around this time? Or act at all wierd, biting at his butt or licking a lot etc? Could be anal glands.

Do you feed him regular meals at the same time every day?

You might want to keep a little journal to record what happens during this times. Is it raining? A full moon? Do the neighbors play bridge every two weeks and it wakes him up? Just play detective a bit but go to the vet first.

 

[rannmiller]

He has an appointment with a vet tomorrow morning. I was calling around to get price quotes and whatnot. Well all I talked to was receptionists and one of them sounded really interested in my questions and getting me into the office. Well without even asking him to, the vet called me back, discussed Joey's issue with me, gave me some possibilities of what's causing it (anal glands or a tapeworm, oh joy), what he'd do to treat it (mild pill that's not too pricey), and told me to come in tomorrow morning.

It was nice to have one of the vets take that much of an interest in me and my dog, so I figure I'll give him a try.

 

[rannmiller]

I haven't taken Joey to the vet yet, but I thought of something he gets every two weeks that might be a contributing factor: raw beef soup bones. That's the only thing that was different that day and the only thing that ever really varies throughout the months.

I sincerely hope I'm wrong, because I love those bones for my dogs and my dogs certainly appreciate them. None of the other dogs have problems like this though, we'll see what the vet thinks. If anyone wants to check him out on his website and tell me what they think, I'd appreciate it: http://www.renovet.com/

 

[BabyHusky]

id rather it be the bones than a tapeworm...though i'm sure Joey disagrees with me hahaa. good luck!! i hope its nothing major. keep us updated!!!

p.s. i called the vet, just to see, and they seem genuinely concerned and nice. when you call diff vets, a lot of them have robot receptionists who don't care about anything but collecting money, but renovet seems good.

 

[rannmiller]

Wow, thanks so much for checking the vet for me! That's so nice of you! I was really drawn to their welcoming demeanor as well, and it seems like I picked a good one! They were very nice people, the vet is almost positive it's a tapeworm issue from what I described, so he gave him a pill for it and squeezed his anal glands (yuck) for good measure.

And to make things better, I didn't seen any dog food company paraphernalia anywhere in the office, so hopefully they haven't been too corrupted in that department.

 

[BabyHusky]

im glad you got him taken in though...no matter what it is...at least he'll be ok soon. =)

 

[rannmiller]

Yes, and let's hope it doesn't happen again, it can't be comfortable for him, not to mention, ew, tapeworm. And my carpet will be much better off too.

 

[BabyHusky]

i just finished potty training my sibe...but you know how it works. for the first month, its just towel and carpet cleaner in hand haha.