incontinence in old male dog

[dilbert]

Just wondered if anyone has any experience of this?

Since September my old rescue dog (had him 1 year and have no idea how old he is - 11 plus probably and is a bull mastiff x) has suffered from recurrent urine infections and incontinence (mostly just dribbling/wetting himself when lying down and sleeping) .

He has had 3 lots of anti-biotics which work in the short term but then the infection seems to come back within a matter of days. He has had ultra sounds and scans and things which show nothing in particular apart from a thickened bladder wall -presumably as a result of the recurrent UTI's.

Could the incontinence be the primary problem which is then causing the UTI's?

Any advice or thoughts gratefully recieved before we're back at the vets again tomorrow

 

[CorvusCorax]

My young male had a terrible time earlier this year with this and you have my sympathies.

My dog's sheath was removed when he was a puppy and the scan showed he had a malformed urethra, he just isn't put together right down there

so he was getting a lot of 'backwash', pardon the term, and dirt coming back into his system and that was what was causing it in the main.

He was absolutely blitzed with anti-biotics (a month) and that has so far cleared it but we have to keep an eye on him, keep him clean (lovely) etc.

Is he happy in himself? Does the incontinence disturb him? Is he neutered? We neutered B just to have two less things to get infected

It might also be worth looking into the condition hypospadias, it is quite rare here but I have my suspicions....Google 'hypospadias in dogs' or else you will get some charming image results

 

[dilbert]

Thank you

He is happy enough in himself but the dribbling is a nightmare to manage as is the bed washing and crying in the night to go to the loo. He gets a bit distressed when he dribbles to and tries to lick himself etc. He is eating/drinking fine and walking as best as he can for an old creaky boy

He has also ended up on a drip twice in the year we've had him as his temperature shoots up and he seems to have unexplained infections (which I think now might be related to the UTI's) and he gets very unwell

 

[CorvusCorax]

Oh dear, poor old fella

is he getting burns as well?
What is he fed on? B is quite prone to allergies as well and it is hard to know if that is connected or not, if his immune system is just generally weak.

I suppose it is hard as you don't know his history.

 

[dilbert]

I was wondering whether his diet might have something to do with it

He and my other 2 are fed a combination of tins (usually butchers) and dry food - asda own (as its what free) or wagg. Not ideal I know but had to cut back on pennies recently, he had to have the wet food to encourage him to eat as he can be fussy and he was very underweight when we had him.

I'm thinking about putting him on the natures diet raw food stuff to help his immune system and he gets extra doggy vitamins.

 

[CorvusCorax]

There's a post by chestnut cob in here about feeding raw/natural if you want to go the whole hog, that's something I'm looking at, and some good hints on there about where to buy.