Help! Bladder expression tips?

I've been to the vet, and received two demos on manually expressing
her bladder. We had the most success with a tech who had me scruff
her, and then slide my hand beneath her belly to feel for the "water
balloon" that I should squeeze.

It went OK in the vet's office, but I have not been able to
successfully to this on my own. She's a big cat - twelve pounds and a
big belly - and her bladder is hard to find!!

Have any of you had to do this, and can you offer any advice to help
this go better?

It's hard being a single mom!

Help!

Thanks,
Maya

Candace
(take the litter out before replying by e-mail)

See my cats at www.gatherround.com
Go to "Find an album."
Enter my email: macca...@aol.com
Password: GlenrosaCats

www.specialneedspets.org

Thanks, Candace. I wanted to answer, but really couldn't I'm
sure she will get help there. :)

Eva

Beth is a/the person who could help you with this. She had a cat who
needed to have her bladder expressed. I don't see Beth posting at the
moment, but she has a special needs pets website:
http://www.specialneedspets.org/

Cathy

You may not be waiting long enough before
"sqeezins" to let the bladder get to be a good size. My vet says to do
this 3 times a day and I always allow at least 6 to 8 hours elapse
between attempts; first thing in the morning; when I get home from work,
then before bed. Sometimes, my kitty gets to drinking alot of water (he
loves water) and I find his bladder gets downright huge. When that
happens, you find that you will have to do a few squeezings, allowing
about 5 to 10 minutes to elapse between each one. The bladder tends to
take a few minutes to regain it's shape and it's easier when it's not
been squashed too much. My vet said to try to squeeze from all sides at
once (easier said than done sometimes) and not just squeeze in the
middle.

My kitty is pretty trim so I don't have alot of kitty belly flesh to
grope through. I can't imagine doing this for my other pudgier cat but
he doesn't need it.

I think time and experience is your ally here. I suspect this is a
fairly new experience for you and your cat. Keep at it and it will get
easier. You will begin to get a "feel" for where to palpate and find
the bladder. It always feels to me like one of those plastic lemons you
get at the store!

I've been doing this for a year now. My kitty has no chance of
regaining this function, but perhaps yours does?

Good luck,

ML Starkey

Good luck,

ML Starkey

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Cathy

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CLARA wants a repost: <8502d34.01070...@posting.google.com>

I had one lesson from a vet and then just kept practicing until I got the
hang of it. It took about a week before I was totally comfortable
expressing my cat Major's bladder, but really the bottom line was that it
was not all that difficult to learn. I think that I was lucky in that
Major was always totally cooperative - she never fought me and was always
very relaxed during the bladder expressing ritual.

I think that experimenting with different techniques until you find what
works for you is the way to go. My vet had Major stand next to a sink, and
she put her hand over Major's spine and slid it back till she found the
bladder and squeezed it empty. I found that I did not care for that
technique. What worked best for me was to pick Major up and hold her body
perpendicular to mine, with her head toward me and her tail facing away from
me. I'd cradle her chest with my left hand and cradle her abdomen with my
right hand. I'd dangle her rear end over the toilet (draping her tail over
the toilet seat so it wouldn't get wet) and then would gently slide my right
hand back under her abdomen till I found the bladder, then would start to
squeeze while still slowly sliding my right hand back. This method really
worked well for us. The bladder is more or less under the rear flank where
the rear leg joins the body, and it would feel to me like a smallish
(somewhat larger than a golf ball), very firm, water balloon. There would
be times when I wouldn't be able to get it on the first try for whatever
reason, so I'd let Major go and then try again five or ten minutes later,
and it always worked on the second try if it didn't work on the first.
Often, expressing her bladder would also stimulate Major to poop in the
toilet, too.

Major Barbara's weight varied between 9 and 11 pounds, and it was a bit
harder to express her bladder when she was carrying around the extra couple
of pounds. But it was still not terribly hard to do. You might want to put
your cat on a diet and see if you can get her to drop a pound or two.

Beth
--
The Special-Needs Pets Web Site
www.specialneedspets.org

Good advice! I'd just like mention one precaution.

You must be very carful to avoid applying too much pressure which could
damage and/or rupture the bladder or urethra or cause retrograde flow of
bladder urine into the ureters and kidneys which could result in acute renal
failure.

Phil.

Thank you for mentioning that. Because Major was usually very easy to
express (because she was always very relaxed about the whole thing), that
was never really a problem for me. Once in a long while, for some odd
reason, I would have trouble getting her bladder to empty on the first try,
and when that happened rather than squeezing harder I would simply stop and
then try again 5 or 10 minutes later - and that generally did the trick.

It was kind of cute, actually - bladder squeezing time became such a
'no-big-deal' part of our routine that all I'd have to do would be to call
her and say "Major, it's time to go potty" and she'd head right for the
bathroom. :-)