Incontinence due to tail pull injury

Hi, my special boy Wycliffe sustained a tail pull injury on 30th June this year.  This has left him with little feeling or sensation for peeing or pooping, he has a 'Mushroom catheter' inserted in his bladder through the abdomen wall that I drain through a valve 3 times a day.He still leaks urine  from his penis, he has been on medication to relax his bladder, but the vet and I have decided to stop this as he is leaking.  He is well in himself, except for being p**sed off at not being allowed out but the vet is giving him a deadline of 4 more weeks to regain the necessary sensations or I have to give permission for euthanasia as he cannot keep the catheter for ever and if he can't pee he can't live.  So far I have been advised that vitamin E helps stimulate the peeing sensation, but I don't know what dosage.  

I will be so grateful for your ideas and suggestions, thank you. xx

Hi there and welcome.

Can I ask you, is his tail limp?

Is it only incontinence he is displaying or are there any other things different about him, his feelings and movements at all?

Sorry, should have said, his tail was amputated as he had no control of it, so it was hanging as a dead weight.  He did not sustain any fractured limbs or pelvis.

Sorry, thank you for the welcome, I'm just beside myself with worry re his plight  x

Ah I see.

This is commonly done with nerve injuries like his. The tail hanging means impossible to keep clean due to incontinence, causing infections on a regular basis.

I feel for you, and wish I had positive news and encouraging words for you.

But statistically, and from what I have seen and dealt with, most do not regain control.

This doesn't mean all hope is lost, but the reality of it is a very guarded prognosis, which you likely understand already from the vet.

Since the tail and spinal cord are related it is possible that he has lost sensation due to spinal cord damage. However, it worries me that your vets only suggestion is catheter or euthenasia. I would start looking into this as a spinal cord injury and seeing what might be done for that. You can even look into learning how to expel his urine yourself manually. I would certainly ask for a second opinion to thi situation.

Does it matter if he leaks urine?  As long as the urine is coming out somehow?  Obviously that is not ideal for an indoor cat, but as long as he can get urine out, maybe he will do okay outside without the catheter.

Hello,


I wanted to add my story of a tail pull injury / subluxation of the spine which happened a couple of years ago.


I too struggled to find stories on the net, this post being one of the few I found. I wanted to share to give others hope.

My cat Jeffrey flew through the catflap one night and hid under the bed. The next day he disappeared and after we put notes up all around the neighbouring streets he finally returned almost four weeks later emaciated and unable to lift his tail at all. He also had some paralysis in the back legs. We have no idea what happened to him and can only guess. I think he then went to one of his hiding places and was either unable to get out due to his injury or perhaps locked in.

In any case when he returned (four weeks later) he was extremely incontinent and was peeing everywhere. It was a really difficult situation as he was very very dehydrated (so drinking a lot) and at times the floor was swimming with urine. I felt like I was cleaning up 24 hours. He also had some faecal incontinence.

After a few weeks, vet referrals, x-rays etc (I forget how long) the vet diagnosed him with a subluxation of the spine and we booked him in to have the tail removed on the vet’s advice. About 30 mins before the operation the vet called us to suggest that we don’t go ahead with the operation. So in the end he kept his tail and we brought him home.

Again, life was tough for us all we had to have sheets everywhere and I was quite depressed as it was a drastic change to our life. Every so often he showed signs of improvement and I’d get quite excited only for him to relapse.

Fast forward two years and how have things been?

Good! He recovered a lot. His legs seemed to heal completely yet he still has very little feeling (if any) in the tail. It’s never erect, although he does try! He still does the occasional wee (usually just a drop or two) but it’s usually in his sleep so we make sure that we have a blanket with a nappy pad underneath all the places he sleeps. Even so he is continent most of the time. He certainly doesn’t wee every day or even every week but it does happen. So he’s recovered a lot and the more time passes the better he seems to get. I’m not sure he’ll ever be back to the way he was but we have all adapted really well including him. If he anticipates a wee he’s really quick to get out into the garden. We do have the very occasional little poo, very hard and about the size of a malteaser. I really can’t remember the last time I saw one so it’s probably cleared up.

So in summary he’s recovered well but very slowly and we’ve also had to adapt a little too. He seems like a happy little guy and we wouldn’t swap him for the world.

My advice to anyone experiencing a similar thing. Have patience. It might be difficult at first (it was a flipping nightmare for us) but he did heal a bit and things got a lot lot better.

Good luck!