Urinary problems and fleas.

Dr. Marie replied:

Sorry to hear that you are having these problems.

When a dog is urinating on things in the house it could be a medical problem or it could be a behavioral issue. The first thing you need to do is to have their urine checked by your veterinarian. They will be able to tell you if there is any medical problem such as a urinary tract infection or cyrstals present. If there is a medical problem then they will need prescription medication to treat it.

If it is not a medical problem then there are a few possible reasons for a behavioral problem. Are they spayed and neutered? If not, this is the first thing you must do. Hormones can cause dogs to have all sorts of bad behaviors.

Additionally, you may want to look into crate training them. This means that for a few weeks they are kept in a crate except for when they go outside to urinate or defecate. The purpose of this is to retrain them to learn that the appropriate place to go is outside. It is tough to do this, but it tends to work well.

Regarding fleas, you should be able to take care of the problem with a prescription medication such as Advantage, Frontline or Revolution. Don't waste your time on over the counter remedies. Fleas are getting resistant to many of these products.

When you use a prescription product you need to make sure that ALL animals in the house are treated and that they are treated for at least 3 months in a row. If you live in an apartment building where there may be other animals with fleas you may need to treat them year round.

Many times the makers of these prescription products have a guarantee on them that if you are using them properly and treating all animals in the house that they will pay for an exterminator to come in if you are still seeing fleas.

I hope this helps!

Dr. Marie.

---This question was asked in our Ask A Vet For Free section.---


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