Elderly Pet Problem Solvers

When our 20-year-old Pug became incontinent, we had to find a way to keep her from constantly messing on the carpets.  It was becoming a real task for me to clean up her wet spots all day long.  The wet-dry vacuum was always out.

These soft-sided play-pens were just the ticket.  The smaller 28 inch one was perfect for travel.  We bought waterproof pads that we covered the bottom with and weighted them down with old folded bath towels. We also spread out a waterproof pad underneath the pet enclosure in case she managed to move the pads inside and wet the bottom of the enclosure.  It worked out perfect.  If she wet the bottom of the enclosure, I just put her in her crate, which she traveled in, and took the enclosure to the shower and washed it and dried it with a hairdryer and we were in business again.

The larger pet enclosure I kept indoors between the dining room and living room.  It gave her plenty of room to get up and wander around, eat, and sleep.  While this larger one has a waterproof bottom that zips out for easy washing, I found the zipper to be a problem because if she peed near the zipper it seeped out onto the carpet below.  I remedied this by purchasing a couple of large whelping pads.

At the time I bought two square 47 x 47-inch pads, but they don't seem to offer these anymore.  If they had offered these round ones then, I would have bought these instead.  They would have fit fine with a little tucking around the edges.

I used these to cover the entire bottom of the enclosure to prevent any seepage through the zipper on to the floor beneath.  Over the top of these, I at first put several of the largest disposable pads I could buy along with old towels on top to keep them from sliding around.  I washed the towels as needed and dumped the disposable pads when soiled.  Eventually, she was soiling pads so quickly it was costing me nearly $100 a month just to keep her dry, so I decided to switch to washable pads.




I bought six of these pads and washed them as soon as they were soiled.  The washer and dryer were running almost constantly, but I still think it was cheaper than disposable pads. 

These products allowed us to keep our beloved Daisy-Pug with us much longer than otherwise.  We finally had to have her put down when she was unable to move out of her own wet spots at night.  It was not fair to her to make her lay in that all night and be upset and uncomfortable and we just couldn't get up with her multiple times in the night and keep going.  RIP Daisy.