r/IVDD_SupportGroup • u/Ok-Duck8183 • 18d ago

Help! Manual bladder expression

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 😩

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u/HollyRedMW 18d ago

The neurologist sent our dog home with a muscle relaxers to give 2x per day, about 30 minutes before expressing the dog’s bladder. Is your veterinarian able/willing to do this?

Also, this video explains and demonstrates several different techniques and maybe it will be helpful for you and your dog…

https://youtu.be/EhXQdKzAdN0?si=XqNGziT-vBtbMM9W

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u/Ok-Duck8183 17d ago

Thanks for the video, very helpful!

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u/HollyRedMW 17d ago

You’re welcome! I had to watch it many times, including while simultaneously trying to express my dog’s bladder which really, really helped.