What would cause a ten week old female puppy to wet herself while sleeping? A family who recently adopted one of my pups called to ask me that tonight. They think their pup has done it twice now: once overnight in the crate and once while napping on the kitchen floor. The first time they thought they missed her signals to go out overnight; the second time she was wet when she woke up from a nap in their kitchen. I said to take her to their vet which they intend to do next week. Does this sound like an ectopic uterer? Based on what I find on the Internet I certainl hope not...

If she wasn't doing this before she left I rather doubt ectopic ureter. She may have a UTI though. Did she have an "inny"? I wouldn't wait until next week to take her in because if it is a UTI she will end up very uncomfortable and maybe with a fever. You don't want it to travel to her bladder or kidneys. I would try to catch a urine sample in the a.m. and have it analyzed.

How many hours a day is the puppy spending in a crate? I find too many hours a day in a crate to be the single biggest contributor to urinating in a crate. The next biggest contributor to the problem is an owner who doesn't respond when the puppy cries to go out. If people crate the dog a lot, they also stop paying much attention to the dog and the dog's needs. It is important to correctly identify these problems because eventually many dogs just give up trying to hold it, and the crate is no longer useful for house training. UTIs also become more likely under these conditions.

I've had this with a pup or two. I just gave cran caps twice a day for 10 days and it stopped. Never sure of why. I never was positive it was an infection but treated it as such. Maybe the pH change changed something, who knows, it worked and that's what counts. I am now boarding a puppy who did it this am, she is 16 weeks. We're putting her on crancaps, can't hurt.

Thanks for the responses. The people aren't crating her excessively to the best of my knowledge. It's a great home.

I handled this pup constantly before she went to her new home and never noticed anything out of the ordinary. My vet said that, like little children, puppies sometimes sleep so deeply that they don't wake up to urinate and wet the bed. Haven't heard any more from the family so I think things must be improving.

Having bought a puppy with an ectopic ureter....the pup would be wet most of the time. My money is on a UTI...there are many reasons why a puppy may get a UTI and crating isn't the most common cause. An inverted vulva is usually the culprit....make sure they don't spay the bitch until after her first heat cycle. In the meantime, don't wait, get this UTI cleared up and get the pup on a cranberry cap regiment.