Pee Happy Poodle - Filthy Blanket

[Iron Man]

A few months ago I acquired a cute little 4 yr old silver french poodle from a lady who kept him outside. He was not only kept outside, but way out from her house and penned up with a cocker spaniel. I grew up with poodles so it wasn't any surprise to me when I noticed he had to "mark" everything in the pen I put him in (can't keep pets in my current apt).

He marked everything...his house, his water dish, his feeding bowl, all the sides of his cage, and when I put a nice blanket out there for him to sleep in as it got cooler outside, he began to mark that too. Now he won't pee in his house, but he insists that the blanket be OUT of the house, at the front of the pen where he can see what's going on, he has peed all over it.

He has slacked off a LITTLE from having to mark his food and water bowl since he's been by himself, but still does it like once a week at least.

I realize this isn't normal, and aside from him being the territorial little poodle that he is, there's an issue here. His pee is kinda dark and I'm suspecting that he's got a mild kidney infection.

Now I cannot afford to take him to the vet right now. It is not at all possible at the moment. But until then he is drinking LOTS of water, instinctually keeping his kidneys flushed I guess? And I'm keeping everything washed. Everything but his blanket that is.

My question is....what do I do about cleaning this blanket? Is it cleanable or is the urine smell in there permanently??

I would be willing to wash it by hand if necessary and let it air dry, whatever it takes to clean his little bed.

Thanks!

 

[arvlyn]

If the blanket itself is washable, then yes, you can wash it. I'd use some Nature's Miracle on it, that will be sure to get out the urine stains and smell.

Are you SURE you can't take him to the Vet? If he's got a kidney infection, that can go bad, very bad, very fast.

 

[TubbyLaLa]

Sounds like he does need to go to the vet as soon as possbile to be honest, if he is having pee problems giving him a small amount of cranberry juice every day might help, I have done this with many of my animals accompanied by vet recommended treatment with antibiotics to help kidney problems.

 

[bordercollie05]

They are both right, please get the dog to the vet ASAP. Kidney infections are bad things. In the US bloodwork can be done for about $80 and usually a bottle of meds (varying by type of course) runs from $30-60.


As for the blanket, we keep some for our 'garage' cats outside that get pretty filthy and my mom always takes them to the laundry mat to use the industrial washers/dryers. They can handle more filth and it'll keep your home washer from getting too clogged up.

Good luck, keep us posted on how your poodle does

BC05

 

[dthoffsett]

If you can't afford much, you might contact your local SPCA, they can often help you find vet care as there are some vets that will have rates for low incomes, some vets will even allow payment plans.

Hope your poodle feels better soon.

 

[Iron Man]

Wow thanks guys! I never expected so many responses. I bought him some cedar chips (esp for pets - cleaned) and put them in his house. He still slept and laid on the blanket. I took out the blanket altogether and he now happily lays buried up in the cedar chips.

I'll look into what you said dthoffsett. I hadn't thought about the ability of payment plans, etc.

I think neutering him would also go a long way in helping with the problem.

 

[Iron Man]

I also bought some cran-grape juice tonight to see if he'll take some up. He likes sweet stuff so I'm hoping he'll really take to the grape taste and get the cranberry benefits as well. He may not even have an infection....but I will find out soon enough.

Thanks again for all the help and will keep you updated.

 

[Iron Man]

Well I thought I'd update everyone on my poodle. Since the blanket has been out of his pen (I threw it away) he's been sleeping in his house on the cedar chips. They keep him deodorized and keep his pen bug free which is awesome.

He's been to the vet and doesn't have a kidney infection. He's healthy as a horse!

Anyway, just thought I'd let you guys know. Thanks for all your help.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I think it would be a good idea to get him neutered because if he's a full male then this could explain some of his excessive urinating behaviors to a large extent.
With his behavior in general though peeing aside, is that all very good? If his previous owner kept him locked up in a pen away from social contact most of the day and did not exercise the dog often, the dogs excessive urinating behaviors could also be partly psychological, like stemming from dominance or boredom issues etc.
If he has any other behavior problems, like constant yapping/barking, not listening or responding to you, aggressive towards other dogs etc etc, then it would be good to spend a lot of quality time exercising and training the dog (perhaps even going to a dog training school)- poodles can be very intelligent animals at times as far as dogs go, and since you are his new owner you need to assert your position as his owner properly over him via good training, regular walks and fun activities with the dog etc to help encourage good, normal and also respectful behavior from the dog .

I've only ever had one experience looking after a toy poodle for numerous months, it was this stupid dog (no offense to any poodle lovers, but while i believe most poodles are intelligent, this one just wasn't) that had led an unbalanced lifestyle- his original owner was an old granny, and on the one hand while she had completely spoilt the dog rotten feeding it human food treats 24/7 (when the granny gave the dog to us she gave us a list of treats it liked, which ranged from everything from chocolate to prawn cocktail sandwiches and cucumber and orange juice etc), she rarely took the dog for walks and didn't train it properly nor did she look after its hygiene well (it smelt really bad when we first got it and its fur was all matted and full of crud etc).

It had to be the most spoilt, lazy, stupid poodle i had ever seen or dealt with, it didn't really have any redeeming qualities about it at all, but i decided to treat it just the same as the other dogs (we had two female black labradors at the time, wonderful dogs) and put it on a sort of dog rehabilitation program.

The poodle absolutely despised physical excercise and was very unfit, and it at first refused to eat normal healthy dog food because it had become accustomed to eating human treat foods while under the care of its granny owner, and it was not very well behaved, always yapping all the time at everything. But i forced it to start taking a 15-20minute dog walk once a day- at first pretty much dragging it along, but after a while it started to participate in the walk more, and then a little while after that it seemed to actively enjoy walks and look forward to them. I gave it a small bowl or two of dog food and plain water a day (cos is was overweight when we first got it), it didn't want to eat dog food at first (i know it wasn't something wrong with its teeth because as soon as i gave it one its old fav treats it gobbled them up straight away- it just hated normal dog food) but i kept on only giving it dog food until it had no choice but to eat it (which it did).
Its teeth were really rotted when we first got it so we had to get its teeth sorted out by the vet, and i ended up brushing the dogs fur everyday since it seemed incapable of keeping itself clean (i don't know if this is common with poodles though). I tried to get it to socialize with the other dogs on the farm although the poodle seemed always either uninterested interested in the other dogs or did not appear to know what to do with them.

Anyhoo...After about having this dog for about 5months, it changed really dramatically (for the better) over time, i would certainly put it down to just simple things like a decent excercise regime, proper healthy dog diet, good discipline and training and activities which make it use its brain (like "find the hidden object" or "fetch the stick" or reacting correctly general commands etc)- it looked like a much happier, more energetic and attentive dog. Unfortunately the granny decided to take the poodle back, which my mother unfortunately agreed to do, so i don't know what came of the poodle in the end, but i was happy that i was able to improve it in numerous ways and give it a good quality of life while it was in my care .
Anyways, long story short, i think a good excercise, diet and training regime is the best way to sort out most psychological problems with dogs. I dunno how your poodles previous owner treated the dog, but either way i wish you good luck with it and i encourage any dog owner to spend as much time with their dogs as possible, whether its exercising or playing or training etc, its all good .

 

[guppy fan]

I'm glad your poodle is doing well! I know that ceder chips caus resperatory infections in rabbis beacuse of thier aromatic oils, you may want to look that up and make sure it isn't the same for dogs. If it can harm dogs you could switch to aspin wood chips. I used these in my rabbits litter box and they worked well. You can buy them in bulk at Petsmart for like 11$.