Ideas for Fidgety Dog During Diaper Changing/Expressing??

For those seeking advice on caring for incontinent pets and animals with kidney-related problems.
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Courtneycp
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Ideas for Fidgety Dog During Diaper Changing/Expressing??

Post by Courtneycp »

Hi! A little background - I have had my paralyzed mini-poodle for about a month now. She can push out poo and pee, but it also leaks so we have her in diapers/diaper covers. I bathe her back-side daily to prevent UTIs and any skin problems. My husband and I have mastered her bathroom time when it is the 2 of us. Because she can push it out, we position her over a training pad and one of us holds her up and the other takes care of business in the back (wiping, diaper changing, etc). It has been working fairly well. Unfortunately, there are a lot of times that only 1 of us is available to do this. When nobody is holding her, she gets very fidgety and either tries to run away or flails around. I normally try to hold her under the lower stomach with one hand and do the wiping/changing with the other (which can be challenging as it is).

Does anyone have this issue and have any ideas?? I'm thinking of making a holding station type thing. She probably won't love it, but it will cut the time she has to deal with it in half.

Any help would be appreciated!
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CarolC
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Re: Ideas for Fidgety Dog During Diaper Changing/Expressing??

Post by CarolC »

If you can kneel on the floor with her facing backward between your legs like in the photo, and kind of put your toes together to block the exit, you might be able to work with her and there's no place for her to go?

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There was a man here who invented a stand similar to what you describe.

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My dog does not wiggle for wiping because I am holding her vertical. In other words, I have her back pressed against my body with my right hand under her armpits and her body is hanging straight down, then I wipe her bottom with my left hand. I guess she could wiggle if she wanted to. You would only want to do this with a dog where the spinal injury is healed and she is stable.

I diaper her in a sitting position. What I mean is, I lay the prepared diaper out flat (we use an area of the kitchen counter that is not used for food preparation), then I bring her to it and sit her little bottom down on it, keeping hold of her with my right hand. Now she is sitting on the diaper and I pull her tail through the tail hole and do the velcro. If your dog is super wiggly and unpredictable, it might be safer doing the sitting diaper position on the floor. I keep hold of my dog but she does try to move around on the counter and I wouldn't dare let go of her and she's not super hyper, so I don't know how it would be with a fidgety dog. The dog I am talking about is 8 lbs.

I wonder why she's so wiggly when you do it.
:thinking:
Courtneycp
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Re: Ideas for Fidgety Dog During Diaper Changing/Expressing??

Post by Courtneycp »

I think that invention is a great idea. I may try to make one myself.

I tried holding her like the first image, but she is quite larger that that dog so it didn't work well. She's about 14 lbs, but she's lost a lot of muscle weight in her back legs since her injury a couple years ago so she's actually built larger than a 14 lb dog.

She is very playful and I think she just get easily bored or distracted. Or the opposite - she's super tired and just want to go lay on the bathroom rug. When we have both of us, she stays still without a problem because the person to her front keeps her distracted .. or she lays her head down on them to rest (its really cute haha).

I think I'll try to build a replica of that " bathroom stand " thing and maybe have some special toy for her to play with while shes in it.

Thanks for the help!
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CarolC
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Re: Ideas for Fidgety Dog During Diaper Changing/Expressing??

Post by CarolC »

Good deal! :D Maybe you can post a picture if you do! :photo:
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