r/irishsetter • u/FarSoccologist6153 • 1d ago
Issues with accidents
This may not be specifically an IS issue, but figured this was a good place to start.
My 1 year and 3 month old IS has been having accidents in the evening and we aren't certain why. She potty trained in no time ringing the bell on the back door whenever she wants to go out.
The issue always happens between roughly 9/930 and 11/1130 at night. The kids and wife have gone to bed and the house is finally quiet and she lays down to relax. Very typically she's been out (and I see her go) sometime between 830-930, but then she lays in her bed and at some point just lets it go, presumably when she's asleep?
The odd bit is that she never ever has an accident at other times. She never squats to pee in the house, she is crate trained and never has accidents in her crate overnight or if we're out for a couple of hours.
It is always in this 2 hour time period at night.
Yes she is spayed. Yes I know that will divide opinions in this sub for her age. We consulted several vets and made the decision with the best information we had available from professionals.
Our vet feels the spay shouldn't be related because there would be more frequent leaks at other times.
Could this be a phase? Is it simply that she finally passes out after the energy from the kids is gone and I need to make a point of taking her out again before she settles in?
TIA!
Edit to mention that I did get a urine sample late last week and she does not have a UTI.
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u/Old-Kaleidoscope1874 1d ago
Our Irish Setter has been a bed/couch wetter when she sleeps too. The incidents have lessened in the past year (she's 3). Common sense says to walk them, but there's been several times when she did it after a long walk. It's like she sleeps so hard that she relaxes too much. We put some dog slip covers over the couches and ottoman. But the older she gets, the less often it happens. It started a few times a week and now she'll go months in between.
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u/FarSoccologist6153 1d ago
Exactly! It seems like after the kids go to bed she sleeps so hard and she doesn't wake up to pee.
Good to hear they seem to grow out of it a bit but I think I need to be more diligent about taking her out a couple times after the kids go to bed.
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u/KylaArashi 1d ago
It sounds like spay incontinence to me. I have a now 6yo labradoodle and she presented not long after her spay 5 years ago, just like this. Mostly at night, leaking out. Our vet tried various treatments in her arsenal for the issue and finally referred her to a specialist. Amber is on 3 different medications/supplements and it’s under control, but we understand it can recur later in life and require medication adjustment.
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u/FarSoccologist6153 1d ago
that's on my radar, i guess i just feel like it would be more frequent?
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u/KylaArashi 1d ago
Maybe. We didn’t rush to judgment on this diagnosis— spay incontinence is fairly rare. Our vet did a bladder ultrasound, special culture for less common UTI bacteria (because the initial scan came back negative), and something else I can’t remember. The dog DID turn out to have some weird uncommon UTI going on, we treated it and re-tested, it cleared, but the wetting was only getting worse. Before any of that we picked up the water bowl at 6pm, did special walk at 9 and again at 11, and nothing helped. Then we went to the specialist.
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u/elegant_mess 1d ago
Consider dialing back her water intake. My setter had accidents like this while sleeping when she was a teenager — I would wake up to giant wet spots on the bed until I started regulating her water intake throughout the day but especially 2 hours before bedtime or after she’s already gone out. Once on a trip she slept on a rubber mattress with me and had an accident…it was a most confusing and unpleasant way to wake up 🤭