Laurie's Blogs.

Laurie,

I just a phone call from one of my favourite vets – he has my patient in with him and his pelvic floor has collapsed (this is what the vet said).  He hadn’t had a bowel movement in 3 days.  He was wondering if there is anything I could do for him. 

I am wondering if I could e stim him and where?  He is an 11-year-old German Sheppard and I’ve been treating him, very successfully, for his Degenerative Myelopathy.  He came in 6 months ago ataxic, weak and unhappy.  We built him up and now his gait is good. He is walking 30 minutes a day, swimming in the river and is generally a happy guy.  The dog is very cooperative motivated.  

Any suggestions for me? 

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Hi there!

Fingers crossed for this one – I’ve never had this exact case scenario, but here are my thoughts!

As for treatment:  I'd do e-stim (one pad below the anus and one pad on his abdomen).   I still haven't done the women's health courses and don't get into internal probes, etc!!! But I’m willing to give things a go using the pads (externally)!

To carry on with this at home, the owner can do pelvic floor squeezes (squeeze the area below the anus – in a girl-dog it would be between the anus and the vulva) as he/she is also getting the dog to do a 3-leg stand (lifting one hind leg).

I'd work lots on abdominals in whatever capacity you can as well.

I'd have the owner stimulate the anus with a Q-tip (seriously!!) to try to get some anal tone and to facilitate pooping!  

The owner / you could also do some abdominal massage to work the poop down the chain. You start by kneading the abdomen over the small intestines with your finger tips, then stroke up the right side of the abdomen (ascending colon), then across from right to left, then down the left side (descending colon).  This might work the poop down the chain to normalize the peristaltic action.  Repeat the process a few times), (There’s a video on intestinal massage as well) then follow-up with the Q-tip trick.

If you do acupuncture I'd needle the sacral nerve root foramina bilaterally, in addition to any other traditional points you might select.

I hope it works for this poor old guy!  Best of luck!

Laurie