Mysterious Smudges on Blanket
Woke up this morning to let my 3yo, spayed, female beagle out of her crate, to find the towel she slept on smelling of urine (pretty common), damp all the way through (slightly unusual for her), and covered in reddish-brown smudges (a first for her). There’s a few smudges on the back side of the towel, though it doesn’t appear the coloration seeped through to the other side, so whatever it is doesn’t seem especially watery. My first assumptions were either blood or poop. It doesn't smell of poop, nor does the red tint seem to indicate it. Looks more blood-like, but I looked her body over and don't see a source that it would have come from, especially all over the towel like this. I'm wondering if it's maybe from her urinary tract or something like that, though haven't seen any other indications of a UTI, and I would think if there were blood mixed in with her urine, it would have seeped into the fabric more along with the urine (the smudges don't appear to have bled into the fabric very deeply). She's looking and acting completely normal and unbothered; ate breakfast and went potty like normal this morning. She's about 23lbs and takes Simparica Trio monthly, otherwise no meds. Have not reached out to her vet yet.
A few other bits of possibly relevant background:
- She is a chronic bed-wetter. We’ve spent months in her puppyhood trying to figure out what was going on with that, but numerous vet visits, hand-wringing, and hair-pulling later, we (and several vets) came to the conclusion that she’s just weird, it’s behavioral, and she doesn’t mind the smell or feeling of her own urine on herself. Apparently her mother and one of her siblings are the same way. Not here to figure that out today. Just relevant because she pees in her bed usually numerous times a week, though it’s uncommon for the towel/blanket to be wet all the way through. like this.
- Less than a week ago, for the first time ever, there was some brownish-gray sludge on the couch by where she had been laying. It smelled somewhat like poop, though not like her typical poop. She does have a tendency to get fish butt every so often, but it usually self-resolves within a day or two.
Any guesses what the substance is and/or what's going on?