Hi All

The constantly recurring question of what to do about urine burns on the lawn from dogs has surfaced in the Lawns forum again...

I've read (either here or on another forum) that a bit of tomato juice in your dog's food will help decrease the yellow patches and dieing lawns. Anyone here had any luck with this suggestion?

Thanks in advance!

Howie

 

I've never tried the tomato juice, wonder if it would work for cats! I swear the vet is lying when he tells me there is nothing wrong with this cat's kidneys or bladder...he stains anything that he goes on.

I just read the postings that you wrote of and there was mention of PetSmart selling something to help with it as well.

here's the link to the postings if you need to share it.
http://forum.doityourself.com/showth...t=urine+stains

-Kay

 

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/p..._problems.html

Tomato juice may not be such a good idea?

 

Bladder stones? Ouch! Don't think tomato juice or baking soda will ever be given to my dogs!

-Kay

 

Thanks for thr advice Patricia - didn't know that and I'm not sure I want to give Blue any new problems...

Looks like I'll be attacking the problem from the turf side for now...

Howie

 

Kaybyrd,

I don't think your vet is lying to you. Your cat's urine is staining things because I believe cat's urine has a lot of ammonia in it. it's not like a dog's urine, or even a person's. That's also why if you let the cat box go too long, it can nearly knock you out! Cat's urine is just difficult! So I don't think your vet is lying.

 

Nina,

I doubt seriously that my vet would lie to me, or I surely wouldn't go to him!

I did wonder why the cat urine stains so badly, thank you for sharing why. I know that there isn't going to be some magic pill to give my cat, so its nice to know how to combat the problems. Oh, idiot me, just thot I'd share this: I hate the smell of amonnia but used it to clean the finish off the linoleum tiles in the bath so I could recoat them. While I was letting it soak before rinsing...you guessed it!....every cat in the house went potty in there!

I need to do more research on my cats and dogs. Learn more how their digestive system works, etc. When I started having my children I learned about body organs/parts that I never knew we had, and I'm realizing it has helped me be a better parent as far as food and health for the children. I can be a better pet owner if I research some on their behalf. It helps me when in the doctors office to understand what he's saying, and also to ask better questions. Same can go for the manimals!

-Kay

 

Hi all,

I read in both forums, about the Tomato juce & am glad we all know better than that now.

I wanted to bring in one more link from Newt, who has taught me about using sugar sprinkled over the Urine burns to stimulate bacterial regrowth. Marturo
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http://www.forums.gardenweb.com0003114833.htm

Please see this link in the Gardens forum, as I can't seem to get it to come up for me here. Sorry Kay, it's a good link to a forum where they discuss the use of sugar on brown spots.

 

thanks for the info marturo!

i couldn't get the page through the link. is there another way to view the post?

-kay

 

I have 2 dogs. They have an area where they relieve themselves.
The grass in that area is DEAD.

I have been told that only the female dog kills grass, not the male.

I haven't been able to watch them close enough since
each one urinates on top of the last one.

This is a good project to see if it is a boy or a girl dog or both.

Find out and let me know.

Thank you in advance

 

Hi everyone,

We have 5 dogs in my house ranging from 4 pounds to 80 pounds. And we don't have an issue with yellowing grass. Yes, we do have grass, evenwith all the dogs. I think it could be because I feed them a very high quality dog food. They also get all the water that they need which could help dilute the urine.
I feed them iams in case you are wondering. None of the dogs have any health issues. The oldest is 15 and the youngest is 4 years old. They are all very healthy dogs as evendenced in the skin and coat. Also, feeding a high quality food means less time cleaning up the back yard. With that many dogs you can appreciate the value of that statment!

Save the tomato juice for skunk sprays.

 

I, too have very healthy dogs ages 12 and 8. In fact I recently
decided to get dog insurance because of of the age of the
dogs.

The oldest dog had to take numerous tests and she was normal
in everyway and has her insurance policy to prove it.

They still make the grass yellow. Maybe it is the type of grass.
It is St. Augustine.

 

Now that I have had a chance to try the sugar, that Newt suggested. In a week with daily waterings of 5 minutes or so the grass started regrowing. That was quick.

I read that Uric Acid in any warm blooded animal will burn plants, with this very potent Acid plants & grass turn brown. Not just female but all warm blooded animals including Man, will produce this waste product in urine.

5 lbs of sugar is not that much, so that you could carry some with you in a plastic herb bottle with sprinkle a tablespoon on top.

After your dog goes, just sprinkle some of the sugar over it then maybe between the rain and the watering you do, it will prevent the brown spots.

PS: High protien food produces more Uric Acid, Cows have less than the meat eating Fox.

Marturo

 

Thank you Marturo

I sure will try the sugar.

 

You can train your dog to urinate/deficate in the same place but you have to keep it clean of feces or they will go somewhere else in the yard, dogs do not like to walk in poo either. You can use wood chips to keep the smell down and it's easy to scoop out. When our girl goes on our neighbours lawn or our own we wait for the yellow and then place a mixture of topsoil and lawnseed on the spot then water it. Within a week its back to normal. This may sound like alot of work but when you are out in the yard with your dogs anyway it's not a big deal.

 

Interesting threads... I swear my dog pees battery acid and I've replaced more stinky sod than I want to think about.
Here's Spring again in Boston, need to lay new sod in most areas- so I'm going to try the sugar thing and see what happens- this and when/if it turns brown- I'll do the topsoil/seed and water idea.
My dog's male & pees everywhere but doesn't lift his leg so that may be why females are presumed to make grass die more- they empty their bladder all in one spot.
Extra water doesn't dilute it enough and I don't think the diet changes will influence the acidity much~
I'd like to get my dog to go on stone- we'll see- I'm going to pour some in an area in the yard and try to train him on it.

 

Here's some new links for urine spots from dogs and how to landscape with dogs in mind.

The idea of the sugar is to feed the microbes in soil and balance out the nitrogen overkill from the urine. The uric acid in the urine is what burns the grass. A tablespoon applied after the spot is watered down should help. Take a look here.
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1645&articleid=1493
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/extension/newsletters/hortupdate/jun02/art2jun.html
http://home.ivillage.com/gardening/landscaping/0,,pccj,00.html?arrivalSA=1&cobrandRef=0&arrival_freqCap=1&pba=adid=7366010
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_design_plans_strategy/article/0,1785,HGTV_3569_3442120,00.html
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1216/is_3_214/ai_n13606544

Newt

 

I found this article on lawn burn from dog urine. It really helped explain why it happens and what can be done about it: http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/turf/do..._problems.html

Hope this helps.