Did you recently find dog urine sticky when dry in your house? What could it possibly mean? It is a likely sign of very harmful disease. Read on to know more.
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We, humans, develop various diseases like heart disease, diabetes, etc. Similarly, dogs can also get a lot of diseases because of obesity, inactivity, and a bad diet.
You should keep an eye on the way your dog is behaving and on the way it urinates to check whether everything is alright or not. Recognizing disease at an early stage can help begin the treatment on time.
Why Is My Dog’s Urine Sticky When Dry?
This is a common symptom of diabetes in dogs.
If you find that your pet is urinating in the house itself or faces injuries while excreting even after being trained, then it can be a matter of grave concern. You should consult your veterinarian.
If you find out that your dog is thirsty all the time, or has sticky and diluted urine, and he takes regular breaks for urinating, then it could mean that your dog has become diabetic. Your dog might urinate in the house or in places where you have trained it not to. It might suddenly start getting accidents all over the place.
When the urine is darker in color as compared to what it used to be earlier, it might be because of excess glucose in the dog’s urine. Also, the dog’s appetite will change if he has diabetes. He may eat too little or too little, and he might suddenly start to lose weight.
The urine becomes sticky due to the excess amount of sugar in the body, and it dries off just like some sugary drink falls on the floor. It leaves a sticky patch if it’s not cleaned immediately. This urine might stink more than usual as well. In some cases, your dog might smell like maple syrup also.
What Causes Diabetes?
Just like in humans, the pancreas produces insulin in your dog’s body, which helps regulate the sugar level in their blood. Sometimes, when the pancreas cannot produce the desired amount of insulin, your dog will suffer from excess sugar in the bloodstream, and this is technically known as diabetes.
Why Is My Dog’s Pee Green?
It is a symptom that your dog might have diabetes
If you find your dog’s pee to be green or yellowish, then it is a sign that something is wrong with your dog’s health. When the color of urine is dark yellow or is different from the color it used earlier, it indicates that your pet is suffering from diabetes.
If you observe that your dog’s pee is of thick yellow color, then try to give him enough water to drink and note down the color of the urine next time. If the color is back to normal or lighter then it may just be dehydration, and you need to take more care of your dog’s fluid intake.
But if you go to the vet and the diagnosis states that your pet has diabetes, he will require immediate treatment. He would require to consume special food items, and it would require him to do more exercise and walk more than he used to do earlier.
Symptoms That Show That Your Pet Might Have Diabetes
- Feeling tired and not interested in any activity: If you find your dog tired or lethargic most of the time and is not interested in playing or walking, it might be a serious diabetic condition. The body starts using fat for releasing energy in the body which causes more toxicity in the body. Therefore you should visit the vet on an urgent basis and get the pet diagnosed.
- Urinating More often: Increased or excess amount of urination is one of the major symptoms of diabetes. It happens when the glucose level in the body rises, and it starts getting into the urine, making it more sticky and dry at the same time.
- Excessive eating and weight loss: While dogs suffer from diabetes, they lose weight, even eating a good amount. The more sugar enters your satiety area, the more you start feeling less hungry. But when a pet suffers from diabetes, their insulin hormone does not function efficiently, so they start facing weight loss or, at times, excessive amounts of eating as they are not able to satisfy their body with the normal amount of food they usually eat.
- Drinking water in excessive amounts in one go: It has been observed that if your pet starts drinking more water and is frequently urinating, it is a sign of diabetes, which should be taken care of as early as possible.
Diabetes Treatment in Dogs
Diabetes is a very unfortunate and expensive disease in dogs. In fact, the issue is so complex that nearly one in four dogs are euthanized simply because they have been diagnosed with diabetes.
It is important that we understand the treatments and not get discouraged with the complexity and costs of treatment. After all, our dog is a family member and we would not think of doing anything like this if it were a human.
The treatment relies on three main pillars:
- Weight reduction
- Dietary control and portioning,
- Insulin
Apart from this, in some cases, Oral hypoglycemics have also been shown to be effective.
In most cases, dietary restrictions and weight reduction in themselves are not enough to control diabetes. You would probably need to administer regular insulin injections to your dog, most likely two per day.
In terms of diet, you would need to give your dog a diet that is rich in fiber and complex carbs which are digested slowly and therefore don’t spike sugar levels.
Lente or NPH with a dosage of 0.5 U/kg of dog weight is the usual preferred insulin dosage. Each time the injection is given, you should also give a meal to the dog of equal calorific content.
After the first five to seven days, therapy is decided based on blood tests. After this, regular blood tests should be conducted at home and the future course of action is decided by the vet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does urine dry sticky?
It is a common sign that your dog might have diabetes.
When the amount of sugar or glucose in the body increases, it moves on into the kidneys’, and hence the urine will turn out to be sticky because of its sugar content.
Is it normal for urine to be sticky?
No, regular sticky urine is a sign of diabetes in dogs.
The stickiness in urine results from high levels of glucose in the body, which denotes that the dog is suffering from diabetes. So if the urine of your pet is sticky, then it’s not at all normal, and you should consult the vet as soon as possible.
How do you clean sticky dog urine?
Use vinegar and baking soda to clean the area where the dog has urinated.
It is quite a problem to clean sticky urine, and even ants tend to come around it due to its sugary content, which would be the biggest issue to tackle. You can put on rubber hand gloves while mopping the floor.
You can even spread tissues on the urinated area to absorb it all and then directly throw it off. Secondly, You can even use vinegar and baking soda to mop the floor as it would clean off the awful smell. And lastly, you can even opt for some products available in the market for the same.
Final Words
Like us humans suffer from various health problems; likewise, your pets also face these issues, and taking proper treatment at the correct time is the only way to stop it from getting worse.
When dogs suffer from diabetes, they have to change their eating and drinking habits and even change their physical activities like walking or exercising. Also, the vet’s precautions or changes in the diet need to be taken care of properly.
Thank you for reading, we hope we covered your questions, and if we left out something, do let us know. You should also consider reading: Symptoms of Diabetes in Dogs and How To Give An Aggressive Dog An Insulin Shot?