Diaper Pail Basics

[CarolC]

For those who are too young to remember. I've been using a diaper pail for months. This is because I sometimes have gross laundry that I can't wash right this minute because I work full time and have a life. Sound familiar? What you do is get a large sturdy pail with a lid. Mine is a 5 gal. painter's bucket with a carry handle from Home Depot. It cost $3.00 and I paid extra for their better quality lid. With my 5 gal bucket, I fill it 2/3 full of water and dump in 1/2 cup of borax and place it in the corner of the bathroom. Now it's ready. I will describe my situation, and you can imagine yours. I keep a white bath towel in the bottom of my dog's cage and change it every day. If the used towel is clean enough, it goes into the regular laundry pile. If it has canned dog food licked into it (or urine or solid waste or blood spotting) it will go into the diaper pail. This way it will not smell, or grow germs, or set the stain, or tempt the other dog to get into it. You scrape off any excess solids first. If your pet has diarrhea, do what our grandmothers did. Carry the soiled article into the bathroom, hold it by the corner, dip it in the clean toilet water and sloosh it around until the worst of it is gone, then flush. Repeat as needed--you be the judge. Then it goes into the diaper pail. For heat, I rinse the blood spots thoroughly in the sink before putting them in the pail. When you have enough in your pail to justify running a load of laundry, put on your rubber gloves, tip the pail into the toilet without dumping the laundry (the borax water will still be fresh--not gross), squeeze as much water out of your laundry items as you can, and go put them in the washer. I keep my pail in the bathroom, rinse it out every time I do a load, then put in more borax and water and start again. Twenty Mule Team Borax is $3.00 a box at the grocery store in the laundry aisle. (It lasts--you use only 2 Tbsp. borax per gallon.) The reason I'm explaining this is that there was talk about baby wipes, and how some people prefer not to use them. I have a dozen white bath towels and use a diaper pail. You could just as easily buy two or three 12-packs of cheap washcloths and use them as wipes if you have a diaper pail. It saves money too. Hope this helps someone.

[critters]

I'm old enough to "remember around the edges" of "real" diapers. LOL

[Debbie-Spain]

Good post Carol! I have a diaper pail too, although now with Kat AND Bombon I am having to do an "animal" wash every day anyway! I now have 2 washing machines, one in the house for my stuff and one in the outhouse for theirs!

I forgot, I don't use baby wipes on Kat because of her skin problems but I do use them for cleaning up around her. I also have some special wipes that are especially for cleaning incontinent people suffering with sores, here in Spain they're called "Comfeel" and I can use those on her, they're very good but terribly expensive. But whenever possible I try not to touch her skin with anything except water and gentle soap because that seems to be all she can tolerate well.

I always feel bad about the amount of disposable stuff I use, but Kat is especially tricky because, without going into too much detail, she is permanently "open" and if the poop is too hard it gets impacted (even when you express her it still builds up) so we tread a fine line keeping it sufficiently soft and that makes things messy! Maybe I went into too much detail after all, LOL...anyway, I just decided that with Kat I can't be as environmentally friendly as I would like to be...Bombon has very little control too but she is much easier to deal with.

You never see Borax on sale here in Spain. I once asked for it at a Spanish drugstore and they told me they couldn't sell it to me, too dangerous!! They interrogated me as to why I should want Borax and what I was going to use if for and I was seriously worried they were going to call the police, LOL, so I never tried again...but I found out that you can use vinegar or baking soda too.

Debbie

[Debbie-Spain]

Hi Carol

Still not sure what the problem was with the Borax, I didn't dare ask again!

The petroleum jelly is quite a good idea but I just don't dare touch her back end. Since I took Kat in (after she was injured) the only time I ever thought I might have to say goodbye to her was because her skin got so bad that I couldn't see it ever healing (although she has no sensitivity in that area so it wasn't actually hurting her, thank goodness). Even my vet, who doesn't normally give up, was desperate and he took her in for a few days to try and sort out her skin. That was when I discovered the healing properties of honey, and applying honey to her rear for about a month (also messy!) was what healed her skin, but I am really worried about it happening again... So we are going to try diapers again but this time starting off with her skin intact and healthy, which it wasn't previously.

I have that landfill issue on my mind all the time too! I have loads of small cloths that I use and rewash, plus so many towels they are coming out of my ears, but even so, I still use the incontinence pads. I use the big size for humans and cut them into three for Kat.

I recently saw advertised some "pet beds" which were supposedly based on mattresses used in Scandinavian nursing homes, for incontinent people. They were supposed to soak up all the liquid and the surface remains dry and they were fully washable. But when I contacted the distributor they said that they didn't import them any more, and I have been unable to locate another source, I thought a few of those would almost solve my problems! I am still looking around for them...I have seen the slee-pee beds but am not sure she would find them comfortable enough, she does like her creature comforts!

Debbie

[CarolC]

Hi Debbie, That's weird, do you think they were confusing it with boric acid, which is poisonous to pets and is used as a roach poison? But I didn't know about using baking soda in a diaper pail--will try it if I run out of borax. Don't apologize about your kitty's condition. Do you think it would work to put a little dab of petroleum jelly inside her rectum to seal the moisture into the exposed end of the stool? Even if she licks petroleum jelly, it won't hurt her because that is a main ingredient in Laxatone. I feel kind of bad about sending incontinent pads to the landfill. Lately I've been cutting them in half and that helps.

[Debbie-Spain]

Ooh, I'd forgotten about the Pooch pads, I found them too when I was looking. The idea is similar but the product I originally saw was quite a bit thicker, more of a bed than a pad...like the Pooch bed on this page, but cheaper!
http://www.poochpalace.com/poochpd.htm
actually, it looks like the Pooch bed is just a bed with a Pooch pad fitted on the top, in which case it is probably cheaper to buy the pads...

Do you know of anybody who tried Pooch pads/beds? They might be a possibility worth considering (to add to the "Incontinent Pet's Kit" LOL)

Debbie

[CarolC]

Were the absorbent beds anything like the pads on the link below? When you get to the website, enter 'pooch pad' in the search box.



Pooch Pads--Washable Absorbent Pads

[CarolC]

Hi Debbie,

No, I'm afraid I don't know anyone who has actually used them. I've only seen them in the store. If it's true what they say, though, these are much better than incontinent pads. A patient lying on a wet incontinent pad is a wet patient!!

[Kat]

Funny, that is just what I did with my kids, as I was a cloth diaper, earth mother type and my kids are 22 to 29 years old now. Funny memories. But Borax in the water works well. I also used Washing Soda, but preferred Borax. If you pour it outside at home, the borax is picked up as a toxin in plants, so keep it away from garden ground and pastures. Probably better to send it down the drain. Water treatment plant should handle this, and we had no problem with a septic tank and drain field system. I am without a washer and dryer at this time, so I am using Pampers, and we only need to catch urine leaking, as the other end still seems to have control.

[Debbie-Spain]

I just found another supplier in Spain and have written to ask them if they have the beds in stock. You can see a photo on this web page:
http://www.setterbakio.com/producto.asp ... dCateg=286

Will let you know if I manage to get one and whether they work!



Absorbent pet beds