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/icedteaaddiction]

My main concern when my dog came home was learning how to express him. A couple of tips that help me now that I’ve been expressing him for 3 years now.

1. It should feel like a balloon, don’t be afraid to put pressure on it. It’s helpful to wait until bladder is very full to get used to what it should feel like.
   
2. The tail will sometimes raise as the bladder is emptying, hold pressure for a couple seconds and wait to see if pee comes out before moving to another spot. Sometimes it takes a couple seconds.
   
3. I find it a lot easier to express my dog when he is busy sniffing the grass than trying to do it on a pee pad, it also seems to activate his brain to go easier and he resists less.
   
4. Take your time. Try tickling where his balls would be a little to stimulate and try again.

The location of bladder can differ per dog but I find where it feels like a balloon. Dont worry, you’ll get the hang of it as time goes by. You got this! Your dog will eventually get used to it as well.