Newfie with Urine Troubles

[puppylove]

Hello Everyone,
I am working with a Nefie (MN) that is just over one year old. For the past 10 months we have been seeing him for anuria or stanguria on and off. It started when he was a pup. He had a weak pelvis and muscle atrophy in left hind limb. Xrays of hips, stifles, hocks, spine were and are normal. When we first started, we performed VOM, laser, and lots of core work and he responded very well. However, after his castration (within 2 days) he relapsed. I was thinking maybe he was not handled gingerly and tweaked his spine. So, more laser and VOM did the trick. He has been doing great until today. Today he could not urinate and we ended up catheterizing and removing 600ml. I walked him afterward and when he tried to urinate again, the base of his tail went up like normal (he is a squatter), but the caudal aspect of his tail bent and pointed down. The client said that only happens when he has trouble urinating. Client's can't afford an MRI. We are going to keep the core work, laser to spine/pelvis/bladder, and VOM. Any thoughts on anything else I can add?

[lehughes]

Hey there!

So I would add traction of some sort - either standing traction (if at all possible with his height), and tail pull traction for sure. I'd also then do flexion mobilizations.
If you have or know anyone that could do acupuncture, that might be useful as well. I'd hit each of the sacral nerve root foramen, Bai Hui, GV 20, and whatever other TCM points you or whomever would like to add in.
Then any mobilizations in the lumbar spine as well could be useful.
Plus check his motor control and timing - slide one leg back off the ground and check for whether he can hold up his back & pelvis or if it drops. If it drops, then you try to facilitate - i.e. vigorously poke - either his abdominals or glutes as you retest with the slide technique. If one of those helps him to keep his pelvis level with the test, then you prescribe that as a home program. 'In clinic', you could use e-stim on whichever muscle as you did the leg slide as an exercise.

And double check his sacroiliac joints!

All in all it does sound neurogenic in origin (to me at least)... so I'd really focus on spine, pelvis, & nerve roots, and anything that could help to keep things 'lined up' and properly firing!

Good luck! We'd love to hear more about this case!!!

Laurie

[puppylove]

Quick update! The traction seems to be helping and we modified some exercises to work on glutes and quads as well as continued core work. My first attempt with the motor control and timing test told me he was off in every department! So not sure if that is me, or him but it is going to be fun to test him every couple weeks and see how the exercise pays off with the different results! Overall, great improvement with urine retention. Hoping for long term improvement. Thanks for the thoughts.

[lehughes]

That's so awesome!
Thank you so much for taking the time to update us!
Cheers,
Laurie