We brought Buddy into the vet yesterday afternoon and as soon as our sweet vet walked in to the room he piddled. Took her 5 seconds to tell us he has a UTI! Yep, his urine stinks pretty bad. We’re talking, open the windows and where’s the air freshener? stink. GAG. We had chalked it up to his med’s causing the smell. Well, now it all makes sense. DAH. His little dribbles here and there and his larger pee accidents are caused by either a bladdar infection or a urinary tract infection. He doesn’t empty his bladder out as well so he’s got this cesspool going on inside of him. Our vet wanted to analyze his urine to be sure (even though we all know it’s a no brainer). Here’s where the soup ladle comes in. She tried massaging him in the office to get him to pee but no luck. So outside we went with the vet tech and a soup ladle to catch his pee. I don’t know why I find this so funny but I do. (One must find humor in every situation.) Steve helped Buddy along outside with his harness and my job was to alert the tech when Buddy squatted so he could play catcher with the ladle. “There he goes!” I shouted! And quick as lightening that tech had that ladle right under him. Best pee catcher on the league. And back inside we went with the freshly caught pee. Nice.
On to the pressure sore. It had gotten pretty nasty to where it was red from infection and now a small crater had formed. This was all caused by the under strap’s of his harness. He need’s a lot of help getting up and when he goes potty outside. Even though the straps are padded, they cut into him pretty hard. Over time, it has caused a pressure sore. We had an older version of the Ruffwear harness without the brush guard. I don’t think the brush guard attachment was out yet when we first got his harness. My advice to older Tripaw owners or if your furry friend is in a situation like ours where they need a lot of assistant is to look into purchasing this attachment if you don’t already own it. Amazon sell’s it for about $25. It will distribute the weight more evenly on their underbelly. Or maybe even look into the sling type harness that Tripaw has. Ok, so we really need to get pressure off of that sore. The new harness attachment will help but still, there needs to be as little pressure as possible on that sore. So we picked up some foam insulation tubing that goes around your pipes at Home Depot. We cut a square off and cut a hole in the center. The hole is where his sore goes and TA DA!, it takes pressure away from that sore. I’ll attach a picture at the end of this post. We are still playing around with the best placement of it and it’s not easy to put his harness on but eventually we will get it down to a science. He’s on Clavamox for the infection as well. All in all it was a pretty good vet visit with solution’s to some pretty messy problem’s.
We continue to embrace his senior citizenship. (To bad he can’t carry a card with him so we can get cheaper dog food) Here’s looking forward to better smelling pee, healing pressure sore’s and continued patience for that ACL to heal!
Cheer’s!
This is the underside of his harness with the brush guard attachment. We attached the foam and cut out a hole where his sore is.
Just saw your blog precious to this ine. Wanted to give you a link that may be helpful for Buddy’s ligament tear. It’s a non surgery approach. Actually, doesn’t appear to think an actual surgery is necessw anyway!!
http://www.tiggerpoz.com/id3.html
Alao, want to say that etting “older” is no picnic….I know!!! You are doing everything possible to keep Buddy comfy…And you’re doing an excellent job!! We humans have canes, walkers and all sorts of tools to help us vet around. Dogs don’t jave those luxuries… but Duddy has you!
I love that picture of him looking all warm and cuddly just enjoying being Buddy!
Your story about the ladle…love it!!! Thst never even occurred to me!! Thanks for the tip!! Soup’s on!! 🙂
And thanks for the great tip on the insulation!! Another brilliant idea!!
Glad you’re getting Buddy’s pee issues handled. He’ll be glad too!! 🙂
Buddy, you continue to amaze us!! 🙂 You’re showing tripawds everywhere, age is just a number!!
Lots and @ots of love to all!
Sally and Alumni Happy Hannah and Merry Myrtle and Frankie too!
Oh awesome!! What is the link?
Thank you so much for the encouragment and thank you for the link!! Very helpful!!
What an update! I have to admit, the soup ladle trick is a winner, we’ll have to remember that. “Pee soup anypawdy?” YUM. Haha!
Sorry to hear about the pressure sore. Could it have been caused by his urine issues? Maybe some got underneath the strap? We’ve never heard of this happening before, but we’re so glad you told us, we’ll make sure others are aware of the risk of pressure sores. So glad to hear it’s healing. You might also want to try Manuka Honey on the wound, as long as he can’t lick it off. See:
http://nutrition.tripawds.com/2014/06/11/how-manuka-honey-helps-heal-wounds/
P.S. The link that Sally shared is at the start of her comment to you.
HI Jerry!
The pressure sore was not from urine issue’s. He has the Ruffmaster harness that didn’t have the bottom attachment. He started having problems with his back leg around July. He could walk indepenedently on his own but he needed help getting up. By November he needed 100 percent help in getting up and pooping because he had a complete ACL tear. The harness put’s alot of pressure in the upper strap when he squats. It’s primarily what was holding him up from falling back into his own poop. The 2 straps with out the bottom brush guard attachment weren’t distributing his weight properly. We are using the brush guard attachment now and are hoping that will be better for him once the wound heals as well. The vet gave us the idea about the foam donut to protect it while it’s healing. My suggestion is that if you have a Tripaw with a complete ACL tear like ours, or if it’s a Tripaw having trouble getting up and pooping/peeing, is to make sure you have the Brush guard attachment or to take a look at another harness that will give better support. We bought the harness ( I think the ACT Assist? I can’t remember the name. But haven’t put it on him yet. We are trying to decide which harness will work best for him and us.) I talked to the vet about the honey because I had read about that as well. He has an open wound like a small funnel. It’s like a drain that seretes fluid which is what pressure wounds will do. She said if it were a typical open sore that honey would do well but not for this type of wound. Thank you for the suggestion though! 🙂
I use the ladle to catch our dogs. after done soap & water then rubbing alcohol to clean it for the next time and in a zip lock bag. Saw one of our vet tech use that so went to the dollar store and got a cheap one 🙂
I am sorry to hear about his pressure sore. That is an awesome idea about the foam and taking the pressure off. Thanks for sharing the idea.
xoxoxo
michelle & Angel Sassy
🙂 xoxoxoxo
The soup ladle is a great idea!
We use several different harnesses with our front-leg tripawd … primarily Webmaster with brush guard, WalkABelly, and Help ‘Em Up. My thought is to use a different one sometimes, to change the pressure points on his body. If a dog needs 100% support, the Ruffwear Doubleback is super-strong and has good weight distribution underneath. It worked great for us getting our dog through a couple of leg surgeries as a tripawd. Best wishes to you and your pup!
Thank you !! Thats great advice!! Will look into those for sure!