Occassional urinary incontencne with bowel movemen

[middleofnowhere]

I think that sums it up. Barker the Elder had a "near death" experience of unknown cause in late January. After a slow but amazing recovery, she had some urinary incontenence. After harmone therapy that resolved. Her defication isn't so much incontence as an inability to produce a stool at will, and difficulty standing to defecate. Mustering a BM takes a while - sometimes she manages outside and that is great. It is OK that she doesn't, too. What I care about is that she has them & the texture is good.

Occassionally, she will have what I think is urinary incontenence accompanying the BM. I am not sure but it seems like this may happen when she has tried to urinate outdoors earlier but been unsuccessful. What I am wondering is if an occassional harmone pill will control this or if the two are unrelated.

The harmones cause her genetalia to engorge and swell so I prefer not to give them.
She is 14, has narrowing of the spinal column & hip dysplasia on the right side. She's on heart meds, cephylexin and etogysic. (looking for investment tips? Try doggie pharmacuticals!)

Any thoughts?

[sleachy]

I don't see a problem with peeing while she is pooing. I know several younger healthy dogs that do it at the same time! As long as she isn't leaking at other times, I wouldn't worry about it.

[Woodreb]

Rica had similar problems with fecal and urinary incontinence. We were able to control the urinary incontinence for a while with a hormone med. Up until the last few weeks, we just gave the hormone once a week and that seemed to help.
It's likely towards the end that Rica's problem was more neurological in nature, but the hormone did give her some measure of control for a while. If you've had some success with the hormone pill then maybe once a week or so would be useful for Barker the Elder.

[middleofnowhere]

Thanks for the advise. I think I'll try 1/2 of a pill every other week and see what that does. I say this because I just gave her a "butt rub" before helping her on the bed - and got a splash of oderiferic urine in response. I think it's been about 3 weeks since she had a pill.

[Woodreb]

How's Barker the Elder doing?

[middleofnowhere]

Pretty good overall. We've visited the chiropractor and are keeping the vet pharmacutical companies profitable. Our regime has changed a bit. She's on hormones one pill every six days. It was every seven but yesterday's flood told me that wasn't quite frequent enough. I've got to research who locally cleans area rugs! Even if this one gets wrecked again next week, it will be a fresher start! I think I am also going to buy a matress protector... Nature's Miracle cannot fix everything.


Her first wheel chair wasn't a good fit so we are getting another frame which should arrive next week. That doesn't address incontinence but it might add some mobility. In the mean time I am contemplating buying a stroller.

[Woodreb]

Glad to hear she's doing well.

I had a matress protector for Rica's big bed. It did make it easier for cleanups when she had an accident there. I also used the large puppy training pads. Those were even easier for cleanup since we just had to pick up and toss. And they saved my carpet from a couple of major floods. I had to keep a couple under her when she was laying there at night to be sure it would all be caught.

[middleofnowhere]

What a good tip! I think I'll get some of those to have handy. She rarely pees lying down - it is usually when she starts to get up.
For her beds, I've slipped trash bags over the inner pillow so it's just the cover that needs washing.

[Woodreb]

I did the trash bag thing with one of her pillows, too. That also worked really well.
The mattress protector with her big bed (which was a 24"x42", about 7 " thick orthopedic bed) I think I bought the protector the same time I bought the bed for her - so never had to use an inner liner with it. I did find it harder to keep the mattress protector clean. It tended to stain and the stains didn't want to come out. If I were doing it again , I think I'd skip that and just do an inner liner of some kind - and the pee pads.

I also used the pee pads to help with clean up from her fecal incontinence. She had reached the point where she had no idea she need to go so this was our best solution to helping maintain her at that point.

The things we do for our seniors.....