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Incontinent Foster Pup can Push Out Pee on Own

Posted: Tue May 21, 2019 9:56 am
by Courtneycp
Hi! I am fostering (possibly adopting) a foster mini-poodle from Greece who was hit by a car. She is paralyzed in her hind legs and incontinent. I was taught how to express her by our vet. When I went to do it for the first time, I held her standing over a training pad and she started pushing her own pee out! I know it wasn't just leaking out because it was a hard/steady stream and she was squeezing her abdomen with each pee stream. That being said, she also does leak pee in her diaper even after pushing out SO MUCH pee during this. Has anyone experienced this?? If so, is it a sign that she should see a neurologist?? I'm thinking she may have more control that I had thought. I also notice her moving her one foot sometimes.

Let me know. Thanks!

Re: Incontinent Foster Pup can Push Out Pee on Own

Posted: Tue May 21, 2019 1:46 pm
by CarolC
Lots of ideas. There is no definite answer on this. You don't really know whether she is leaving some urine in her bladder because she didn't empty completely when she went, or whether she is really getting herself properly empty, and the wetness in the diaper is from additional urine being made during the day. It would be helpful if you could figure out which it is.

You might try standing her up, letting her urinate all she can, then wait maybe a minute or so. Stand her up again, see if she would like to empty any more. I do not know if this applies to your dog, but we learned that when expressing the bladder (which you are not having to do) it is helpful to express-rest-express. During that short rest, the bladder kind of shrinks and reforms itself, and you can get any remaining urine out easier. I do not know if the same principle would apply to a dog that has control, but it would be easy to try.

Another idea might be to use behavior. By that I mean, some dogs will go out in the grass and squat, but then after the first pee, they also go around sniffing every blade of grass and marking various places with a little more. I do not know if she is a marker, but it would be interesting to see if she is inspired to urinate some more during a walk around the yard. Do you have any kind of rear harness to walk her?

Another option would be to let her empty all that she can, then you squeeze her to see if you can express out any more, and by doing that get her completely empty. If you get more out, then you know she isn't completely emptying. If you are not used to expressing, perhaps you could get someone at the vet clinic who is good at expressing to see if they can get any more out of her after she goes.

One more option would be to make her potty breaks more frequent (if your schedule allows it). Different people here have reported that their recovering dog can go different lengths of time without leaking, for example 4 hours, 3 hours, whatever. It might involve diapering her, then checking her diaper every hour to see when it begins to get wet.

There are some medications that are useful in elderly female dogs who wet the bed. One is Proin, another is DES. Sometimes they are used in combination. There may be something newer they are using now, my experience is over 10 years ago. I do not know if they would be applicable to your dog, but in senior female dogs that develop incontinence with old age, they can help prevent leaking. You would just want to be careful that you do not try any medication that is going to hinder her ability to urinate independently like she is doing. It might be something to ask the vet.

I kind of replied about the neurologist in the other post. If you can afford the neurology consult, that would be nice. I think a physical therapist might also be able to give you an evaluation of the movement in the leg, and the status of the other leg.

Silly me, but what color of poodle is she....? :D

Re: Incontinent Foster Pup can Push Out Pee on Own

Posted: Tue May 21, 2019 4:02 pm
by Courtneycp
Thanks! I tried to express her afterwards because I did speculate she wasn’t fully emptying it. It didn’t work. Probably because I have never done it successfully so I’m not used to it. She pushes about 4-5 times until it’s just little drops left. I’m thinking once we save some more money that we’ll have her properly evaluated by a neurologist. Thanks!!

She looks JUST like a mini poodle but she’s a bunch of colors! She’s dark grey with some white areas (one right on her chin) and then orange behind her ears!

Re: Incontinent Foster Pup can Push Out Pee on Own

Posted: Wed May 22, 2019 3:22 pm
by CarolC
Your dog sounds cute with her colors. :wub:

From your description of the way she urinates, it sounds like maybe she's really emptying. I mean, I don't know, of course. It sounds (?) like she knows when she's done....again just guessing.

Re: Incontinent Foster Pup can Push Out Pee on Own

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 10:56 pm
by Courtneycp
Hii! It’s been a while since I’ve responded in my post, but I wanted to get some advice and thought it’d be best asking on my previous topic that provided some background. We adopted Ruby! She’s been amazing and we’ve been doing great with her bathroom schedule until this December when I found blood in her urine. She had a blood clot or 2 come out as well. It was really alarming but our vet said it was a bladder infection so we put her on the antibiotics and it cleared up. We took extra care to make sure she (what we thought was) emptied her bladder and we change her diaper very frequently. This weekend, our sitter who is also a vet tech expressed her and she peed out a small blood clot. I found another small blood clot in her diaper later in the day. I haven’t seen any blood though. I called my vet and she suspects it’s the same infection that never cleared up and called me in some more antibiotics but I have a bad feeling for some reason. Anyone experience anything like this? It’s alarming to see!! Also, anyone have a paralyzed pup that seems to be able to push out pee but still pees in their diaper? If so, I’d love to hear what you do!

Re: Incontinent Foster Pup can Push Out Pee on Own

Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2020 12:03 am
by CarolC
Hi Courtneycp,

Congratulations on adopting! :D :wub:

The part about being able to urinate voluntarily but still leaking in her diaper does not seem unusual. In fact, it is common in elderly female dogs who are not paralyzed. She does have some bladder control because she can push it out so well. She just may not have quite normal function in her sphincter.

The part about the clot is puzzling. Clots are not commonly reported here, at least not in the urine. So I really don't know what it is. My only suggestion would be, maybe you should have her checked for crystals or stones. Pets do sometimes develop urinary crystals or bladder stones. In that case, the vet may recommend a special diet, along with the antibiotic.

If it turns out to be a urinary infection like before and you are having trouble curing it, even with a longer course of antibiotics, the next step might be to do a urine culture. Your vet can do a basic urine test in the office, but a urine culture is usually sent off to a lab and it takes a number of days to be completed, and it will cost more. But when it is done, the lab will tell your vet exactly what kind of bacteria is causing the infection and exactly what kind of medicine is appropriate for that kind of bacteria, so you can eliminate it.

Those are the best ideas I can think of. Check for crystals (your vet can do this), also check for bacteria (your vet can do this), and if the antibiotic doesn't work this time, do a culture.

The only other thing I can think of is that possibly the blood is something female, not urinary. The female plumbing and urinary plumbing are all in the same place. For example, my dog was having what looked to me like a urinary infection, and it turned out to be female. She is fixed, but she still got a female infection, probably from the damp diaper. He told me to give her acidophilus twice a day and she is better now. I do not know, is Ruby spayed? Does she wear her diaper 24/7, or do you let her sleep with a bare bottom at night to get a little air on her skin? Just some ideas, hope you will post what you learn about the clots, it may help someone else someday.
:thinking: