Trooper may be missing his leg, but it's never stopped him. He's an active dog. He and his sister have been house-trained for months.
Recently, he started suffering from urinary incontinence. He would lie down and wake up in a big puddle. The urine is very diluted. I took him to the vet. His lab work - blood and urine came back normal except that his urine was very diluted. The vet said to limit his water and crate him. No medications were given. She said she really felt it was behavioral. I disagreed, but per her instructions, I crated him for the rest of the day. His food and water intake were normal, but he was dripping urine constantly. He was miserable. He wanted out of the crate. He always sits by my feet or on the sofa next to me. He hated being in the crate all day. I decided he was done with the crate.
I did not believe it was behavioral. He leaks constantly. He isn't going over and squatting on our floor. He dribbles urine non-stop. She felt crating him would solve the issue. I worried that because he is a tripod he may have hurt his back and had some kind of spinal insult that needed steroids. After crating him failed to resolve his incontinence and increased his anxiety, I decided I would try the steroids. I had prednisone on hand so I started him on a prednisone regimen. 5 mg twice daily x 3. Then once daily x3. Then every other day. By day three, he had stopped dribbling. I took him back for a follow-up and she said she was sure that crating him for half a day fixed him right up. She didn't think the 3 days of steroids made a difference even though he was no longer incontinent. The vet wanted to do an x-ray. I declined the x-ray because the incontinence had stopped and as an RN, I know it really won't show soft tissue damage.
That was a month ago. Today, I noticed he was incontinent while he slept. It happened once and has not happened since then. He is not dribbling urine this time.
Has anyone else ever had issues with incontinence and a tripod dog? Here is a pic of my boy and his sister.
I agree that it sounds like a spine problem. Personally, I'd find another vet; many just aren't willing to deal with handicappers. While I consider tripods to be disfigured rather than disabled, Trooper obviously has something else going on, and it's probably back-related. After all, SCI and being a tripod are NOT mutually exclusive! You might want to try belly bands , especially when he's leakiest, to help with containment. It's not uncommon to have leaking during sleep when there's a spinal problem, even when they're otherwise continent. When I had a sleep-leaky boy I used mattress pads all over the place, even on top of the bedding, and then just washed them.
