IVDD Dog Not Urinating: Full Bladder Signs and What to Do

An IVDD dog not urinating. Dogs that can't empty their bladder properly can suffer from urinary retention and urinary tract infections, and trouble urinating is one of the signs that needs immediate veterinary attention.¹ If your dog's back end is also weak or paralysed, our overview of caring for a dog with weak back legs covers the wider day to day picture.

Why IVDD stops a dog from peeing

Urination depends on nerves that run along the spinal cord, so pressure on the cord can make it hard for a dog to empty the bladder, and spinal injuries higher up can affect those nerves directly.¹ IVDD, short for intervertebral disc disease, is a nerve condition in which the protective material around the spinal cord has changed, and the result can be pain, loss of normal function, or paralysis.¹ If the paralysis is higher up along the spine, it can affect the nerves that control urination and defecation.¹

Spinal cord injury in dogs can lead to urinary and faecal incontinence or retention, depending on the severity and location of the injury.² That bladder dysfunction can be difficult to recognise and is easily overlooked.² This is the part owners miss: dribbling urine can be a sign of urinary retention, because an overly full bladder sometimes leaks small amounts while the dog is not actually emptying.³ Leakage happens when the pressure inside the bladder exceeds the dog's ability to hold it.⁴ Wet bedding can look like a dog who peed. It can also be a dog whose bladder is dangerously full.

How to tell whether your dog is really emptying

Feel for the bladder and watch the output, rather than trusting the puddles. With your dog standing supported or lying on their side, slide a flat hand up under the belly just behind the ribcage and in front of the back legs. An empty bladder is hard to find.

Practical things that help:

• Time the last real pee. Note the hour and the rough amount every single time.
• Measure output. Blot with a pee pad, or hold a shallow container under a male dog. You are looking for a proper stream, not a teaspoon.
• Check the belly before and after. If the bladder still feels full afterwards, your dog dribbled rather than voided.
• Keep a written log.

A dog should void its urine at least three times a day.³

Red flags that mean call the vet now

Call immediately if your dog cannot pass urine at all. Complete inability to urinate is a medical emergency that can result in death unless immediate treatment is initiated.³

Get seen urgently for any of these:

• Frequent attempts to urinate, often with straining or signs of pain, and a distended abdomen.³
• Straining without producing much, painful urination, or blood in the urine.³
• Lethargy, not eating, nausea or vomiting, and a large, painful belly.³
• Worsening weakness, or a dog who was walking yesterday and cannot today. The symptom that is an absolute emergency is if the dog is unable to walk.¹

It is important to monitor a dog's ability to urinate and defecate normally.⁵

Giving your dog a fair chance to go on their own

Take short lead trips outside three or four times a day, onto familiar grass where the scents are. Stay inside whatever rest your vet ordered: during medical management the patient is on full cage rest and only taken outside, on a leash, for elimination purposes.⁶

What helps a dog get into position:

• Support the back end with a towel sling under the belly, or a rear support cart, so the hips are held and the dog can adopt a normal squat or lift posture.
• Give them time to stand still. Many dogs need a full minute in one spot before anything happens.
• Try gentle triggers. Running water nearby, or a warm damp cloth held against the prepuce (the sheath around the penis) or vulva, can prompt a dog to let go.
• Use a harness, not a collar. All affected dogs should be fitted with a harness instead of a neck collar.⁵

Expressing the bladder at home

Ask your vet or vet nurse to demonstrate on your dog first, hands on, before you try it alone. Dogs who become incontinent will need aid from their families to express their bladder.¹

The shape of it, once you have been shown:

1. Work on a non-slip surface, with your dog either standing with the rear supported or lying on one side.
2. Find the bladder with a flat hand under the belly, behind the ribcage.
3. Cup it gently between flat hands or fingers held flat, never poking with fingertips.
4. Apply slow, steady, increasing pressure and hold. Do not jab, squeeze in pulses, or force.
5. Keep going until the stream stops and the bladder no longer feels like a balloon.

Our step by step walkthrough of expressing a paralysed dog's bladder goes into positioning in more detail.

When expression is not working

Some bladders will not release to hand pressure, and forcing harder is the wrong answer. Whether a spinal cord injury leaves a dog unable to empty the bladder or instead leaking urine depends on how severe the injury is and where it sits along the spinal cord, with damage at the very base of the spine behaving differently from damage farther forward.² The location and type of the nerve damage influences the pattern of signs, the possible treatments, and the outlook.⁷

Tell your vet, that day. The first step is often to relieve the dog's discomfort by manually expressing the bladder or passing a catheter, a soft tube that drains the bladder.³ If a dog's bladder has become overstretched, they may need frequent catheterisation for some time.³ Vets can also prescribe drugs that relax the muscle ring at the bladder outlet, or that strengthen the squeeze of the bladder's own muscle wall, so talk to your vet about whether medication is appropriate.³

What an over-full bladder does over time

When a dog can't urinate, the urine backs up, filling the bladder and blocking the kidneys, and toxins that are normally filtered by the kidneys build up in the blood.³ Urine backing up can also lead to chronic infections, bladder or kidney stones, and even kidney failure.³ A bladder left stretched for too long loses the connections between its muscle cells, which stops it contracting normally,⁸ so it can lose the ability to squeeze. A chronic urinary infection could lead to eventual dysfunction of the lower urinary tract, which in turn could lead to stones, infertility, and potentially kidney infection and kidney failure.³

On the skin side, dogs lying in their own waste need constant bathing and may get skin infections.¹ Keep the belly and inner thighs clean and properly dry, change bedding the moment it is damp, use washable pads or belly bands, and check for redness daily. It is unfair to punish a dog or make them hold it, so use pee pads inside or give access to a doggy door.³ If you are mostly finding wet patches where your dog sleeps, our guide on wet bedding overnight may fit your situation better.

How rear support changes toileting

A cart holds the hips so your dog can stand and posture instead of collapsing mid-stream. If a dog's front limbs are strong enough, the vet may recommend a mobility device, like a cart, to help them get around.¹ The OldPal Rear Support Dog Wheelchair carries weight through the hips and chest with a padded harness rather than through the spine, and dogs can squat and go to the bathroom while in the chair.

Timing matters during recovery. Strict rest is required in the first three to six weeks following a disc protrusion or rupture, with or without surgery, and your vet will decide when activity can be increased as healing progresses.⁵ More on managing this in our guide to bathroom and hygiene routines in a wheelchair.

Sizing is one measurement, rear leg height from the top of the hip straight down to the toe pad, taken with your dog lying on their side. Five sizes cover 3 to 27 inches. Use the fit finder and measuring guide, or email a photo and your measurement to help@oldpalpets.com and a person will check it for you. If the size is wrong, our Fit Guarantee lets you exchange the frame for the size that fits.

The opposite problem: an IVDD dog peeing a lot or leaking

With true incontinence, the most common sign is pooling or spotting of urine while the dog is sleeping or relaxed, on bedding or the floor,⁴ and the dog often seems unaware of it.⁴

What recovery usually looks like

Return of urinary and faecal continence is one of the key things vets track in recovery from sudden disc disease,⁹ and losing the ability to feel deep pain in the back legs signals a worse outcome overall.⁹

In some cases, dogs never regain the ability to urinate voluntarily and need frequent manual compression of the bladder or a catheter left in place.³

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• Understanding IVDD in dogs
• Using a wheelchair with IVDD
• Bladder incontinence in dogs

Sources