Mike's Doghouse

At least, we think we have a diagnosis.

Mike’s vet, Dr. Knepshield, called Tuesday. His urine culture results were negative so no weird infection going on. Combined that news with the well-within-norm blood work up, the cause of Mike’s urinary problem narrowed down significantly.

The vet thinks Mike has what is called “urge incontinence”. It is more common in female dogs but can happen in males. In her research, she came across another male pup with almost exactly the same symptoms. That pup was helped via a human medication. Basically, Mike doesn’t mess his crate at night because he’s not moving around and he doesn’t have access to water. But, once he drinks water (and he drinks a lot of it), his brain and bladder don’t communicate very well. He can empty it easily enough, but he can’t KEEP from emptying it. His bladder doesn’t let the brain know it is full, resulting in leaking and flooding upon standing. Add to it that he can’t seem to hold it long enough to even finish standing up, he probably has “bladder sphincter” issues.

I picked up the medication today and he got his first dose at dinner. If this is indeed the problem, we should see a slow stopping of the piddling (aka artwork on the floor). If that happens, we’ll start reintroducing the water until he can consume and hold. We don’t know how long he will be on it. The vet’s office has never used this medication before. We’ll be learning together.

Here I get a pup to train as a Service Dog and we can’t get beyond house training!

Linkages:
urge incontinence
oxybutynin chloride (Ditropan) 5mg 1/2 tab 2x day

Oh, and a photo to appease the masses:

(click for larger image)