Bowel incontinence in senior dogs

[DorkyChantelle]

I have an 11 year old Great Dane named Charlotte. She's the sweetest dog in the world but she's definitely getting on in years (especially for a Great Dane!). She doesn't have very many problems. She has a bit of arthritis but it's managed quite well. She can still run and play and loves chasing other dogs. She'll still dig in the yard and find some weird object in the yard to chew on, lol. Her teeth are in great shape (the vet said they look like the teeth of a 4 or 5 year old dog) and she basically acts the same as ever except for her bowels. She gets fed a small meal in the morning and a larger meal at night (approx. 7pm). I'm home all day (for the next couple months anyway) so she gets let out when she needs to go. We usually put her out for the last time at 11:30pm and my mom wakes up at 4:30am. In that small span of time, she has already gone to the bathroom on the floor. Lately this has been happening every night (she used to be able to make it through the night without problems). I don't necessary think she's incontinent of bowels because during the day, she knows at least a few minutes ahead of time and can alert someone to let her out. But every so often, she'll get up and start going to the bathroom before she can even get off her bed.

My question is this: How can I help her with this problem? I feel bad for her because she always acts so ashamed when she goes on the floor. I'd also like to know how long it usually takes dogs to digest food. Would feeding her only early in the day make it so that she mostly only needs to go during the day? It's just at night when no one is around that's the problem. She has no problems with urinary incontinence; she hasn't peed on the floor since she was a puppy. She has a very good quality of life at this point besides this area and I just feel badly for her. Any suggestions, insight, or experience would be great! Thanks

[sara8]

i think if you switched the meals and gave her the bigger one in the morning and a smaller one maybe even earlier in the evening it might help. it can't hurt to try.

[terrylynnn9]

I know how your feel, a few years back I had to put my loyal peekapoo down after having her for almost 17 years, and at the end she was also incontinent, not with pee but sometimes it would seem to just fall out while she was walking to the door and i too felt so bad for her, she was so embarrassed. Her teeth were horrible and she had esophogial cancer (throat cancer) they couldnt believe she was still alive.
It was a hard decision, for two years even though she had that problem she still had a lot of good hours, where she would play and eat and stuff, but one day we woke up and she was wheezing and her paws and extremities were not warm, was weird. My boyfriend took her to mcdonalds for her fav lunch and then took her, but Im glad we waited for a sign, and thank goodness I did not have to do it, Im not nearly strong enough.
I believe you'll know the right time, and also I started feeding Brandy never after 6 pm. and by 10 everything was gone through. I believe the digestion for dogs is faster than people I think its 2-6 hours. Maybe you could try paper training him for when he cant wait, does he sleep in your bed?
Good luck, youll be in my thoughts

[DorkyChantelle]

She has her own bed RIGHT beside the back door (so when it's an emergency, she doesn't have far to go). Since my first post, I started feeding her primarily in the daytime (2pm) and so far, no accidents! I hope it can stay this way for awhile. I'm so glad we've seemed to find a way to help her, at least for now. I thought about trying to paper train her but when she goes, she walks for a good 10 feet so we would have to paper the whole house, lol. So far everything seems okay (knock on wood). She's just not used to the daytime feeding schedule because she still comes looking for food at her normal time. I felt so horrible last night going upstairs to bed with her looking at me like "Why aren't you feeding me?" even though she had been fed earlier in the day. Hopefully she gets used to it soon