Bladder Problems After Sedation

[sam pearson]

Hi,

I"m after some advice regarding our 3yo female English Staffy x American Pit Bull - today she went for the second time to the vet to be sedated to have her nails clipped. I realise this isn't ideal and we are working towards doing it without the sedation but for now that is what we need to do.

Last time she went in at noon and by 2pm she was cleared by the vet to come home and we walked home and she was just fine with a lovely manicure - everything as usual.

Today she went in at noon and I picked her up at 2pm and she seemed okay- when they brought her out they said she had weed on the office floor which is something she would never do usually (wee inside I mean) but I figured she was anxious or the sedative was the cause of that. Walking home the 10-15 minutes to our home I could see and she wasn't quite right - she didn't want to play at the dog park as we walked by (so unlike her but I figured she was feeling a bit off and perhaps a bit groggy), then she stopped walking a few times and it seemed she was either trying to stretch her back legs out or perhaps try to wee although she didn't produce any urine. She is afraid of storms and a storm started brewing just as we got home. She started whining and I thought it was because of the storm but looking back perhaps she was experiencing some pain - not sure. Anyway once we got home it was apparent she was having issues as despite not having any previous bladder problems she was making little puddles of wee everywhere and wee was dripping out as she walked along. Even when she was lying on her bed urine was dripping out every now and again as she was lying on her side. She also yelped - just the once - for no apparent reason - I can only presume she felt pain (she's a very tough dog pain-wise). I rang the vet who said it wasn't normal but he wasn't too concerned and said to see how she was in the morning. It's now 7pm and it's still happening sometimes, less often though. For the most part she seems comfortable but she is unhappy. The storm has passed and she has stopped whining so perhaps the whining was just about the scary storm. Also, she's been refusing water until just now when she had a small drink so the improvement we've seen might just be because she hadn't drunk enough. She did gobble up her dinner as usual.

So my questions are if she was fine last time wouldn't it to be expected that she be fine this time?

Is it normal to have this kind of reaction to being sedated? If so how long before she will recover?

Is there anything I should be doing aside from wait until the morning.

Do they use a catheter when they sedate dogs? If so could that cause what I am describing?

Thanks in advance.

Edited February 1, 2013 by sam pearson

[noisymina]

A UTI could do that. If she is still poorly in the morning, grab a urine sample and take it to the vet to test.