Need advice about nerve damage incontinence in a puppy

[beanphd]

I am fostering a 12 - 15 week old Border collie pup who lost a rear leg, it was amputated after being found with the leg severely injured. One vet thinks that he has nerve damage, so he can't control potty or poop. We are seeing a different Vet on Monday for another opinion. Potty dribbles out here and there without a thought and poop just falls out a little piece at a time. I try to very gently express the poo, and he acts like it is uncomfortable, he also bleeds a little from the anus (off and on). I think the bleeding is from sitting on his anus because of the missing leg (?). He is otherwise such a smart and happy puppy, I don't want this problem to keep him from being adopted. He needs to find a permanent home, as I cannot offer him the attention he deserves as he grows up. My heart aches when I have to leave him in his crate most of the day.

[critters]

Have you read all the poop and pee expressing ideas in the sticky post at the top of this bb? Expressing might help keep accidents to a minimum. How good of you to take care of this baby!!

[GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily]

And too a baby probably isn't too aware yet of the messes he's making? Do you see any sores around his bottom that might be lending to the bleeding?
I agree with critters. HOW lucky is this boy that you have stepped in to his life! WELCOME!

[Cindidoxiemom]

Good expressing techniques can help with the leaking. You might also look into a male wrap with a pad.
Your right...this little guy does deserve to have a good and happy life...thank you for taking him in.

IM CarolC and ask her for the link to the male wrap site.
Cindi

[critters]

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[Debbie-Spain]

Do you know what the injury was? Was he hit by a car? I'm not sure from your message. We did have one case here of a dog being hit by a car who bled and it turned out that he had ruptured and infected anal glands (not sure if it was part of the initial injury or came about from him dragging himself around on the dirty floor of a dog pound afterwards). It would surprise me in a young puppy but I would ask the vet to take a closer look to see where the blood is coming from if they haven't done so yet.

I had a wonderful but highly excitable puppy called Nen in foster for some months, he had spinal cord injury. Initially he was paralysed, and he was also incontinent. I have other spinal cord injured incontinent pets so from the start he was up for adoption. When he first came here he was totally incontinent. As time went on he got slightly better but not much. To make things worse he suffered with "excitement urination", which meant that every time he got excited (and he got excited about everything) he sprayed urine everywhere (generally on my feet unless I happened to be inspecting his, then it was on my head or hands).

Anyway, he started walking eventually and in April he found a wonderful family who had never had a disabled pet. We talked lots and they tried "babysitting" him for a few days before they finally adopted him which I wouldn't normally do but it worked out very well in this case. He had been with me for 10 months by then. He was walking and although he was managing to sometimes keep dry through the night, he still pooped without control (while asleep, didn't even wake up) and often when he woke up he would wet his bed before he could get to the door.

I have used acupuncture (done by a qualified vet who teaches acupuncture to vets at the University of Barcelona) on all the spinal cord injured animals that have been here. But Nen had severe complications with a wound and also he was very nervous and excitable so he didn't get much in the way of acupuncture. After his adoption his walking was good some days and bad others. We did new x-rays and 3 of his vertebra had fused underneath (he was in a car that fell from a height of 7 metres and suffered severe spinal cord compression). So eventually we decided to try using gold bead implants to stimulate acupuncture points. That is the only time I have used them but 3 months on, it would appear that the improvement has been considerable. Certainly in terms of walking and the strength in his rear legs (previously he couldn't squat to poop and would fall and lie down, now he can squat!). According to his family his urinary incontinence has improved considerably too. He still loses control when over-excited, but not as often between times. He manages not to wet his bed any more and get outside before he starts peeing.

I'm not suggesting that you get gold bead implants because I can't guarantee they are responsible for his improvement, but what I wanted to tell you is that incontinence due to nerve damage can get better but it's a slow process. Your puppy is still very young. Unless he had major tail trauma in the accident. I would be very hopeful that once he is recovered from his operation and starts gaining strength that you will see some slow but sure improvement in his control. Border collies are such wonderful dogs, you could try contacting some of the breed rescue groups to help you find a home for him. I'm sure that you'll find one ... I have found it is useful to make everything sound a little bit worse than it is, and then when they first spend time with the dog they find things are much better and easier than they had feared! I live in Spain and there is virtually zero tolerance of disabled animals here, but if Nen found a great family here I'm sure your little guy will find one there. Do keep us posted on how he gets on...

Photo of Nen attached...

Debbie

PS: Due to the wound complications I mentioned, Nen had to be "crated" (not allowed to move from his bed) for several months...he was upset about that at the time because he always wanted to be in the garden but I honestly don't think he remembers it any more