Trouble with Catheter in Doxie

[DoxieMomof2]

Hello all, this is my first post. I'm so grateful to have found this site and forum!

One of my mini doxie's, Chester, is having major problems. He's 11 and has had slight back issues off and on for a few months. We started doing light laser therapy and that was helping so much. Then suddenly for no apparent reason he lost all movement in back end and was in pain. The vet said deep pain sensation was almost gone and he needed immediate surgery. I recently lost my job, so there was just no way we could afford surgery. We decided to continue the light laser treatments that we had already paid for and pray for a miracle. Well, against all odds he is improving, praise the Lord! I've ordered him a wheelchair and we will continue to hope for further recovery.

Here's the problem though. He has control of his bowels, but he can not urinate. He will go just a little outside, but definitely not emptying his bladder. We've tried expressing him over and over, even the vet wasn't able to get that to work. It's as if he has just enough feeling that he tenses up and won't let go of the urine. So, the vet put in a cath to leave for a few days. It came out before we even got home. So, I've been cathing him myself several times a day. The problem is even with cath in I'm having trouble emptying his bladder. I can get about 20 - 30 CC's out with a large syringe, and then some more will drip out. I don't understand why the cath won't work. Does anyone have any tips or suggestions? I also need to know where to buy more caths. My vet was nice enough to give me 2, but I know I can't keep using it over and over. Despite my best efforts I know he's going to get an infection. He's on antibiotics right now, but they will be out in a day.

Thank you so much for your time and help. Chester is my first baby, we've been though so much. He survived a bleeding ulcer and an autoimmune disease that took him to a blood count of only 9. He's so very tough, I won't give up on him.

Blessings!

[critters]

I'm NO catheter expert, but, yeah, they CAN keep you from expressing. I wonder if meds would help; phenoxybenzamine (PBZ) was GREAT for my boy with a spastic bladder. Bethanechol made him impossible to express.

[CarolC]

I do not know the answer to this, just thinking. It seems unusual that not only can you not get much out by expressing, but also do not get much out by catheterization. I know you just said you are not working right now so I wish I had a better suggestion. My suggestion would be to take him to the vet (which I know will be a charge) and see if they can get more urine out. If they can, then perhaps they can show you how to feed the catheter up his plumbing to the same location they did, and see if there is anything you need to adjust in your technique. However, if they cannot get more out than you did, it almost makes me wonder if there is some kind of mechanical obstruction. For example, is it possible he might have developed some stones in his bladder that are blocking the exit of urine when you squeeze, and that are moving around and blocking the opening of the catheter when you try to drain him that way? No idea. It is something that could be verifed with a common x-ray, which is fortunately not too expensive. It seems like it either has to be technique, or something blocking the catheter. I hope you will post what you find out.

You are right, the catheters should be sterilized between every use. Did the vet give you any solution to sterilize them? One of the moderators here did this for over a year and she used something called "cold sterile".

The catheters that I use are all kept in a tube with a solution called cold sterile. I re-use them and do not have that little finger grip thing as shown in the photo. I also do not use a sterilized hemostat to feed the catheter through. I just wash my hands well and then rub that antibacterial liquid on my hands right before I grab the catheter (that is the way I was taught by my vet). I just try to hold the catheter back as far as I can. Anyway, so I am not as sterile as those photos. Waffles has been on a preventative antibiotic for the whole time and knock wood has not had an infection yet. It would probably be good to show how far the catheter goes in and how the syringe is connected and when to stop suctioning out urine. Just little things like that for the absolute beginner. Because really, it is the beginner that really needs to see step by step photos. I am so glad that my vet started me out with cathetering Waffles. It was so much less stress (once I got over my fear of hurting him) in the beginning of his recovery. I think anyone who has a male dog should be shown how to do it by their vet.

[critters]

Or even a spasm could be obstructing him.

[DoxieMomof2]

Thank you both. On Wednesday night we started him on phenoxybenzamine, diazepan and bethanechol. I'm confused now though since you say bethanechol made it impossible to express him? Anyway, the cath has been going better. Sometimes I don't don't get much, but most times I'm able to get him to empty. Using the cath 3x a day is no good though, he's looking really red and swollen. His antibiotic just ended, so I'm worried he's getting an infection. He's no longer improving, in fact he seems a bit worse now since he no longer even wants to walk around a bit when I hold his back legs up for him. We have the wheelchair for him now, but I can't seem to get it fitted right and he doesn't try to walk while in it. Saying lots of prayers again.

[critters]

Well, just because Bethanechol made Buddy impossible to express doesn't mean it will with everybody, but I always make the warning anyway. Our vet didn't believe me and took Buddy home one weekend to try Bethanechol on the sly. She found out I was right.

The fact that he doesn't walk in his cart doesn't necessarily mean that it's ill-fitting. Have you tried a training program to teach him how to pull it? Not all critters figure it out immediately.