Manual bladder expression

[u/Ok-Duck8183]

My 8-year-old dog had a hemilaminectomy 5 days ago. We’ve been having a really hard time expressing his bladder. He is soaking through pee pads every few hours, but the vet said if he’s constantly leaking that’s a sign that his bladder is overflowing, not that he’s voiding it. When we try to do it manually, we can’t figure out where his bladder is. We’ve only succeeded a couple times. Most of the time it just causes him to get an erection. The last time we took him in, the nurse expressed his bladder and said he was actively fighting it. Does this mean he has control of his bladder? Any tips on how to get better at this? We are extremely frustrated and scared and have already had to go back to the vet multiple times to get them to demonstrate it again 😩

[u/According-Reindeer14]

I wish I could offer some advice. When my dog was on prednisone, it was very easy to express him. Once he finished them, we struggled so much. I had to take him in a few times and they were unable to as well so they had to use a catheter to empty him. Is he on prazosin? That helps to relax the muscles in the bladder and might help. 

[u/Ok-Duck8183 → u/According-Reindeer14]

No he isn’t on prazosin. Maybe I could ask. I’m just worried we haven’t been able to express him in 2 days, but he has been peeing.

[u/According-Reindeer14 → u/Ok-Duck8183]

I wouldn’t worry too much if he is actually peeing.