Post
by CarolC » Thu Dec 24, 2009 3:09 pm
Dolly is a chihuahua with an injury near her tail that resulted in partial paralysis. She dribbles and has no control of her bowels. However, I think she is gaining bowel control. I am posting this now as it just happened. If I decide later I was wrong, I will post a correction. I have noticed 3 things. A couple of days ago, I found a "pile" (sorry) of poo in her bed, which sounds like nothing, but it is significant because she has never been able to pass more than one stool at a time. She'd pass one small stool, later another, and they were always scattered in different places. I was thinking, "Did I feed her differently?" but she'd had her normal Royal Canin with some diced turkey on top, nothing high fiber or fatty. Then yesterday morning before we went to PT I was pinching her bottom (which causes her to urinate, pinch-pinch, dribble-dribble) and she had a stool which was not far enough down for me to pop it out. It seems after a good deal of pinching for urination, she moved the stool down, and I was able to help her expel it. That was a first. Anytime I have tried to manually pinch stools out of her bottom, they've had to have been within reach already, and new stools did not move into reach, it was all involuntary. Then last night I was getting ready to carry her up to bed and I checked her bottom to see if there was a stool available that I could pop out before we went upstairs, and an amazing thing happened. She had a nice-sized stool and I popped it out. Then another moved into place and I got that. This happened 4 times and by the time we were done there were 4 regular-sized (not small) stools, as you'd expect from a normal dog that evacuated completely, and I felt she must be empty. This has never ever happened before. I think maybe (not certain yet) that there has been some healing of the nerves governing the bowel and she has just developed the ability to voluntarily move her bowel. It has been about a year since she was injured as a puppy. I would be thrilled for her if she can learn to empty like this, it will be so much healthier. Until now, the only way we could get her empty was a warm bath.
We go through 1 comforter, 2 waterproof crib pads and a playpen cover every day. I can't get 2 days' worth in one load because of the comforters, so it's 2 loads every 3 days, plus 2 towels and 2 travel blankets a week and 4 diaper covers, or about 5-6 loads a week...just for one little dog. I hang dry the waterproof pads on the line, which saves dryer space. Bobbie I think that supply place is discriminating against female dogs. We want panty parity!
