so firstly, our 6 year old male pug needs his bladder expressed. So I've been doing it and me and him have been successful. It seems now that either he became stubborn or his bladder got worse because he would only let out urine easily out of his bladder when I took him for a walk and then tried expressing. If I try to express him at home at any time, it's kinda hit or miss. Sometimes I can get lucky but usually I guess his bladder area is tense. So I take him for a walk 2-3 times a day and then when I try to express, I can notice that his bladder area is a lot more relaxed and calm and it is a lot easier to express him. Lately I've been getting super busy and I decided to get him on PBZ and bethanecol.
The vet prescribed PBZ at 2.5mg two times a day. So we started with PBZ. For the first couple days, I noticed a big difference. I could tell his sphincter was more relaxed as he was easily expressed without taking him for a walk or anything. This lasted a week, and I could express him super easy at any time of day. But recently he has got harder to express and it seems like he went back to how he was before. I try at home, but no go. I take him for a walk and then we come home, I express and he urinates. This has been going for a couple days. I've been feeding him PBZ consistently. Anyone know why this might be?
Thinking of starting the BC as well now
PBZ effect seems to wear off?
Re: PBZ effect seems to wear off?
My reply is all over the map, so just for whatever it's worth. It looks like that is a low dose of PBZ, so possibly you could ask the vet if s/he thinks adjusting the dose would be worth trying. If the problem is a tense abdomen, my personal experience is you can loosen up the abdomen a lot with a minute or so of massage before expressing. I am not talking about light massage, I am talking about deep massage, pretty forceful, kneading till you can grab deep handfuls. I am not sure why he is hard to express, my main guess would be he is getting some control back. If you think there is another reason, you might want to have him checked for crystals just to be sure that isn't the problem. I don't think crystals would cause a tense abdomen that goes away after walking, just difficult expressing, and you are describing a tense abdomen. There is one member here who has a cat who is impossible to express if she is cold or the room is cold. I am not sure that applies to your dog but walking does get you warmed up, in addition to relaxed by walking off any tension. I have not used bethanecol but people here report varied results, sometimes it helps, in some cases it cases spasticity.