(TMI) "Self-Cleaning" his crate?

MySmooshFacedBoy

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Sir Hamilton Percival the 3rd (Hammy or Hambone)
Background: Hammy is 9 weeks old, been home with us for all of 8 days. We have his crate, with one small fleece blanket, in the living room and potty training seems to be going.. well, I'll just say, "as expected". My husband and I work during the day, but I come home at lunch to let him out and only ONCE has there been an accident in his crate! YAY!

But... as I sit here at 12:30am, Hammy has been quiet in his crate for about 20 min (He had been barking/crying for 30 min) I hear the distinct sound of liquid hitting plastic. Then... drinking. I ABOUT DIED!!! Not a peep out of him for 20 min before or the 15 min it's been since I heard it. He was outside right before I crated him so he couldn't have had to go THAT bad. Right?

HAS IT ALL BEEN A LIE? HOW MUCH OF HIS WASTE HAS HE INGESTED???

I had a boxer that would "self-clean" vomit, but THIS? I've never heard of a dog doing that.

He also pees about 4 times each time we bring him out, every 2 hours-ish. First a decent amount, then dribbles/drops the next few times. The past 2 days hes had accidents in the house right after we bring him in, literally w/in 5 min.

Maybe UTI? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated! Thank-you!!!
 

2BullyMama

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Yep --- I'd get him checked for a UTI. I also never heard of a pup/dog ingesting their own urine.... poo not uncommon, but urine.. can't say I've heard that before
 

oscarmayer

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Yes...time for a visit to your Vet. Please let us know how it goes. As unpleasant as it sounds, we need to know what's up.
 

g8erjackie

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Hmmm, never hear of it but could it be that the little guy is thirsty? Does he have access to water 24/7? I googled it and the Internet tells me it could be a nutrient deficiency, but there wasn't much info.


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Manydogs

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I would first have him checked for a UTI, as suggested. Some pups who have been crated (before you got him) for long periods of time,will drink their urine,trying to clean their space. Usually it is a pup who did not have a clean area. But probably a UTI.
 

Davidh

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I would be surprised if a 9 week old would have a UTI already, but it could happen. Males sometimes just don't empty their bladders all the way, too busy marking things, but I doubt a pup that young is marking already. It's hard to say, maybe just too busy exploring and not peeing all the way. But a trip to the vet can't hurt, just to rule it out.
 

NewEnglandBully

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Any update on this? Have you been to the vet? If not, do a urine catch in the morning and bring the sample to your vet for a culture…few questions…did you get him from a quality breeder? Did you see the conditions he was in before he came home? How big is your crate?
 

Libra926

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I also would like to know an update on this....


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MySmooshFacedBoy

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Oops sorry, forgot to update!

Brought Hammy to the vet and tested for UTI which was negative. BUT he does have crystals and had a urine ph of 8.5.

Vet said its most likely food related so we cut out all treats.

The kicker here is he also got 3 vaccines (a shot in each shoulder and one orally) that day and had diarrhea for 4 days after! So he was on a rice/pumpkin/turkey diet to stem the "flow". We've gradually gotten him off of the diarrhea diet and back to his candiae ALS (dry).

SOOOO.... He's been back on his canidae with no treats for about 3 days. Still peeing EVERYWHERE but has not self cleaned his urine inside of his crate since I originally posted. He is crated for 4 hours in the AM (then I come home for my lunch hour and play/feed/walk him) 3 hours in the afternoon, and 6 hours at night (11pm-5am).

His crate is getting small LOL! It's "medium" sized and he can just turn around in it. But can't stand with head/neck at normal angle, he's gotta duck down. We have an xl crate that we used for our 80# boxer that Hammy will be moving into this week!

He will squat 4 times each time we go out. Each squat yields less and less urine and eventually leads to nothing at all. He pees while he walks to the door, he pees WHILE HE'S DRINKING, he pees in house right after we bring him in from peeing 4 times.

Never any blood. (Snow makes this easy to check!)
No strong odors or dark coloring to the urine.

Vet mention science diet rx food but I definitely won't be feeding that.

Whew... sorry so long!

Fyi- he's 13 weeks and 27#.

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MySmooshFacedBoy

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Sir Hamilton Percival the 3rd (Hammy or Hambone)
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Hammy is an american and english/old english bully mix. I have pictures and weights of mom and dad, nothing else. His genetics are questionable at best as he is a product of backyard breeding. (Preggo momma, and the assumed dad, were surrendered when the owners house was foreclosed on. )

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2BullyMama

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Oops sorry, forgot to update!

Brought Hammy to the vet and tested for UTI which was negative. BUT he does have crystals and had a urine ph of 8.5.

Vet said its most likely food related so we cut out all treats.

The kicker here is he also got 3 vaccines (a shot in each shoulder and one orally) that day and had diarrhea for 4 days after! So he was on a rice/pumpkin/turkey diet to stem the "flow". We've gradually gotten him off of the diarrhea diet and back to his candiae ALS (dry).

SOOOO.... He's been back on his canidae with no treats for about 3 days. Still peeing EVERYWHERE but has not self cleaned his urine inside of his crate since I originally posted. He is crated for 4 hours in the AM (then I come home for my lunch hour and play/feed/walk him) 3 hours in the afternoon, and 6 hours at night (11pm-5am).

His crate is getting small LOL! It's "medium" sized and he can just turn around in it. But can't stand with head/neck at normal angle, he's gotta duck down. We have an xl crate that we used for our 80# boxer that Hammy will be moving into this week!

He will squat 4 times each time we go out. Each squat yields less and less urine and eventually leads to nothing at all. He pees while he walks to the door, he pees WHILE HE'S DRINKING, he pees in house right after we bring him in from peeing 4 times.

Never any blood. (Snow makes this easy to check!)
No strong odors or dark coloring to the urine.

Vet mention science diet rx food but I definitely won't be feeding that.

Whew... sorry so long!

Fyi- he's 13 weeks and 27#.

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Glad there is no UTI and definitely stay away from the Science diet.... did they say what type of crystals they are... if not ask them to find out. it makes a difference on how to treat
 

MFrey2012

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Oops sorry, forgot to update!

Brought Hammy to the vet and tested for UTI which was negative. BUT he does have crystals and had a urine ph of 8.5.

Vet said its most likely food related so we cut out all treats.

The kicker here is he also got 3 vaccines (a shot in each shoulder and one orally) that day and had diarrhea for 4 days after! So he was on a rice/pumpkin/turkey diet to stem the "flow". We've gradually gotten him off of the diarrhea diet and back to his candiae ALS (dry).

SOOOO.... He's been back on his canidae with no treats for about 3 days. Still peeing EVERYWHERE but has not self cleaned his urine inside of his crate since I originally posted. He is crated for 4 hours in the AM (then I come home for my lunch hour and play/feed/walk him) 3 hours in the afternoon, and 6 hours at night (11pm-5am).

His crate is getting small LOL! It's "medium" sized and he can just turn around in it. But can't stand with head/neck at normal angle, he's gotta duck down. We have an xl crate that we used for our 80# boxer that Hammy will be moving into this week!

He will squat 4 times each time we go out. Each squat yields less and less urine and eventually leads to nothing at all. He pees while he walks to the door, he pees WHILE HE'S DRINKING, he pees in house right after we bring him in from peeing 4 times.

Never any blood. (Snow makes this easy to check!)
No strong odors or dark coloring to the urine.

Vet mention science diet rx food but I definitely won't be feeding that.

Whew... sorry so long!

Fyi- he's 13 weeks and 27#.

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NOOOOOOO - RX food!! Good job Mommy :)

SOOOOO my Ellie had a long battle ALMOST a whole year with crystals, did the vet mention what kind?? Also Ellies were the Struvite kind, and what we found to be a large cause of her crystal production was the High PH, which came from her drinking water, do you have City or Well water?? We have Well water that is VERY hard with a VERY HIGH PH Level, and we found this out, buy purchasing a simple water test kit, at Lowes, just make sure it will test the Alkalinity, as that is what causes the High PH. We had to change Ellie to bottled water, we just pick up the gallon jugs at the store

With Water consumption and Crystals as long as they are present in the urine they will irritate the bladder and cause a constant sensation/urge to pee, did the prescribe anything to treat the crystals??

Ellie's vet prescribed her a supplement called Petameth to acidify her urine, to keep the crytals from forming, this worked AMAZING for her, we then had to go back to puppy basics, and small up her crate with the divider so litterly had next to no room but to lay down, and take away all her bedding, BELIEVE me this mama was sad, BUT, it worked!! within a couple weeks, I have the same work schedule you do, I leave at about 7am, do lunch at 12, and back home again by 5ish. Ellie's Vet is a Bully Specialist, and also breeds and raises them.

Ellie still has treats, she gets grain free Fruitables, and get regular people veggies, she LOVES green beans, not so sure that treats would be the cause of Crystals unless they had an ingredient that would raise the PH. But I'm not a Vet just sharing my experience

We also purchased Urine test strips from Chewy.com to keep an eye on her PH, if things ever seem off.

So it might be worth an ask at the vet, as to what type of crystals he has, so they can be treated properly

Also Hammy is very young yet, as long as his crystals get cleared up, and nothing else medically is wrong, he is going to be just fine.

Sorry if this all over the place...
 
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MySmooshFacedBoy

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Not sure what type of crystals, I'll have to call and check. No prescriptions for anything yet, I agreed to try to find an agreeable food on my own. But I just bought a huge bag of food so was hoping it was the treats I was using for potty training that was the culprit. He was getting about 10-12 per day. Some wellness brand, some from the treat "bar" at chuck and dons. (Specialty pet store in the Midwest, fyi)

I'll test my water this weekend! I forgot about that!

We have well water but we have softener too as it is very iron rich water.

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MySmooshFacedBoy

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Confirmed with vet: Struvite crystals. She said they're "rare"? Guessing she may not be famiar with bully breeds as from reading here, they're not that rare?

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MFrey2012

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That's great you know what kind of Crystals your baby has.

In my readings I have not heard of Struvites being "rare" for any breed, though I have heard that Urate are the ones that are "rare"

Forgot to mention, Water is the necessary EVIL, will irritate the bladder but it MUCH needed to flush out the Crystals, to make it feel better, we struggled with that as Ellie is not a big water drinker, but moistened her dry food and that seemed to help.

I think it was mentioned you were feeding Acana?? Is that Grain and Potato Free?? We had good luck with Orijen, pricey I know, but we fortunate to able to feed that to Ellie.

Good to you and Hammy - You got this!! Keep us posted!!
 

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