the difference between the varied types of incontinence because cole's kind of incontinence is not the same as say daphne's or molly's incontinence which is why he ended up with maggots and they did not.
depending on what the cause of the incontinence, determines how it presents. so a dog like lucy who had hormonal incontinence, drippled little drops of urine while she slept. this is because due to the lower hormone levels her actual urethral muscle relaxed when she slept. a dog like molly, who is 18 yrs old..has an old, flaccid bladder without much muscle tone. her bladder can expand and actually hold while it fills up but when she has got to go, she has got to go so she goes as soon as it fills.
dusty as a diabetic..produces too much urine and she needs to empty her bladder much too frequently so she is incontinent not from any kind of mechanical flaw in her urinary tract but simply because she has to go more often and in larger amounts which makes for more opportunities for "accidents" in the house than a non diabetic dog might face.
even a dog like daphne 2 who has incontinence issues due to ruptured discs can present in her own unique way. because she is only 4 yrs old...she has a well toned bladder muscle so she can hold a fair amount of urine without any problem at all. her issue is, the nerves do not conduct from the spine to the bladder, so she doesn't know she has to go until it starts running out.
cole of course is our most profoundly incontinent dog. he has a three inch displaced fracture in his sacral spine. he pretty much does not feel any of his back end at all...he should by rights be parapalegic. he has no bladder or bowel muscle tone, he has no sphincter control...so the waste runs into his bladder and bowel and just keeps on going thru. he literally empties urine constantly as soon as it goes into the bladder. he doesn't know it, he can't feel it..it just runs right thru him.
hence he is always wet, hence he drops stool constantly and if he gets a tummy upset and develops diarrhea...it becomes an utter disaster.
so cole's profound and constant incontinence puts him at greater risk for many things...skin break down, maggot infestations, urinary infections which the other intermittent incontinents are not as much at risk for.
gee, wasn't that a fun post....incontinence 101.
thank you Carol, I learn so much from you dear... this is all priceless information... and then I'm able to spread the information around and not only my senior dogs benefit from it but many other senior dogs benefit from it too since their owners are more informed. We don't get these info when we go to the vet... These kind of information come from people who live it on a daily basis... and there is not many around, actually here in Quebec I know none. Soooooooo Carol, you are not only "giving your life, energy, health, love, compassion, etc" to the SAINTS animals but you are giving it all over the planet... in case you did not know... love ya, Marie