Hi everyone,

Once again I'm writing about Pukka's incontinence problems - urinary
this time. She's pretty much given up on the litter box in general;
she's tiny and old and shaky and I just deal with it. The latest
problem that has my vet and me concerned is she can't seem to empty her
bladder on her own. I brought her in to the vet a little over a week
ago because she just seemed to be dribbling pee, not really realizing
it, without every really emptying her bladder completely. We were able
to express her bladder (it was huge), so nothing seems to be blocked.
Ran bloodwork to check her kidney values and general health; the only
problems that came back were anemia, slightly low blood glucose (though
still out of the danger zone) and slightly elevated alkaline
phosphatase - the vet couldn't find any connection to anything for that
last one. The anemia's being attributed to chronic disease, since she's
been adrenal for a while now. I'm giving her Pet-Tinic twice a day to
get some iron back into her, and it definitely seems to be perking her
up. The only remaining problem is we still don't know where the urinary
issues are coming from. The vet thought possibly since she sleeps so
much, her bladder just gets too full without her waking up and is
losing its tone, hence the dribbling. I've been checking her bladder a
few times a day and expressing it if it's big, which happens often. Has
anyone every heard of anything like this? It must be so uncomfortable
for her! She's not paralyzed, and she obviously doesn't have a prostate
to swell and cause a problem like this, so what is going on? It's not
quite all the time either; sometimes I just pick her up and put the
tiniest pressure on her belly, and she pees all over me. It's pretty
frustrating for all concerned - I'm sure she doesn't like being
squeezed every day. Any input would be great, thanks so much!

Rachel, Pukka and Eddie

[Posted in FML 5916]