One of my favorite lines about getting older is that we are like fine wine, getting better with age. I also like to think with age comes wisdom, and that thought is leading me to believe I need to be a little more specific in my statements.

As I and my beloved friends and family grow longer in the tooth, I notice while the mind might be expanding, the body is wilting in some highly unpleasant ways. The aches, the pains, the injuries, the “conditions,” the loss of control in certain embarrassing areas.

Fair warning, one thing I am going to talk about is incontinence. In hopes you will stick with me, I will tell you the topic is dog incontinence, and there is a happy ending to this story.

Still there? Okay, thank you.

This tale is about my darling girl Tawny. She’s around 11 now, and doing quite well (you may have seen my recent YouTube/Facebook video post of her racing around my back yard; crazy puppy still there!). She is still developing and growing behaviorally; I am sometimes awestruck at the decisions she makes these days (another post for another day, for sure).

But she is burdened with two problems. One has been a lifelong struggle getting worse: skin allergies that cause her to scratch and scratch, especially during the winter, sometimes bloodying herself, in particular her ears and tail. The other is more recent, and it is nighttime incontinence.

The struggles, the discoveries, the victories
I need to say here I am no vet, and I am not recommending anything. Tawny goes regularly to the vet, and they are well-versed in her life and health. But in my quest to help my girl (and before her, my darling boy Jaspar who was with me 17 years), I will look everywhere for potential solutions, especially those that avoid strong medicines/chemicals. I do this for myself, so of course I will do it for Tawny.

Over the years, in my quest to quell her infernal itching (I have eczema, so I relate), I have run through: topicals ranging from vitamin E to various things in squeeze bottles and moistened towelettes, to salves and cortizone creams, to plain water; not bathing and bathing frequently; brushing little and brushing a lot; every shampoo and conditioner on the planet; making my own dry shampoo; many, many commercial dog foods, vitamins and supplements, and a lot of money with no good results.

What I have finally found that put the brakes on it:
1) A round of antibiotics in case there was an infection.
2) Making her food myself (see my “Goofy dog love” posts for that story)
3) Baking soda, water and a washrag.

That last one, believe it or not, has become my miracle, and it was a total desperation move on my part. Tawny was worse than ever this ling, cold winter, her black skin testifying to total loss of her golden coat on the back of her ears and the tip of her tail. As I was researching my latest thought, dry shampoos, I keyed in on the baking soda part. The dry shampoo itself was a bust, but the baking soda intrigued me because it has a cleansing effect AND a soothing effect.

So the next time I saw Tawny scratching something, I dumped some baking soda in some cool water and simply blotted the area with the mixture, making sure I thoroughly soaked the skin, towelled off the excess moisture and let her dry.

After about three days, the miracle: I didn’t see her scratch all day. I checked with my mom and sister, who also spend a fair amount of time telling her to stop scratching, and they reported the same thing: virtually scratch-free. Soothing the skin kept her from bothering it, allowing it to heal. The hair is growing back on her ears and even the end of her tail!

I need to treat every other day at least. If I go more than that, the scratching starts. But I will happily blot her for the rest of her life if I get this result.

Pee problems peter out, too
Now a recent problem: Nighttime accidents. For the entire time she’s been with me, Tawny has not drunk much water, and just plain didn’t ask to go out much. Most mornings she wouldn’t go out first; she wanted her breakfast instead. I called her the Exxon Valdez — a super tanker who could hold it forever.

So I literally got a rude awakening when she started having deep-sleep whoopsies. I wasn’t thrilled when she let go on one of her dog beds. But I was supremely miffed when she released on my side of my bed (this is NOT the way I want my spot warmed!).

Because she had already had the antibiotics to address any skin infection, I knew she didn’t have a UTI. Something else was going on. But could I do anything about it beyond cutting up shower curtains for bed liners? (What? They work great and it’s cheaper than pee pads.)

Back to the Internet I went. I knew this was a common problem in older females (dogs and humans!), but didn’t know how many different factors could be involved. After doing my usual obsessive analysis (mild OCD is helpful sometimes), I decided to try a couple of natural remedies that were given credence by some vets. And also vowed to let her out as late as possilble for that one last pee.

First up was apple cider vinegar. I added some to her dinner and crossed my fingers that 1) she would still eat it and 2) it would do some good.

No worries for the first part; she snarfed it just as fast as always. And I am relieved to report she hasn’t had an accident since I started adding the vinegar. However, after two weeks of treatment, though she was dry through the night, she was still doing a lot of “tidying up her downstairs,” as my British friend puts it.

So I went after the second remedy: powdered cornsilk. Apparently, it’s been used for a long time by different peoples for urinary stuff. And interesting to note, though corn is a common allergen for dogs, they haven’t shown a similar reaction to cornsilk.

I kept the vinegar going and added the cornsilk to her dinner, and crossed my fingers again.

Long story short, she still ate it and — drum roll — stopped over-attending to her personal area. She is not only dry overnight, but she is not dribbling.

Is she fixed forever? Of course not. But we have beat back the beast for now, and both of us are happy about that!

Told you it was a happy ending. 🙂

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