I have a 6 year old bulldog who has had two surgery's. He just started bleeding again. It has not been as bad as in the past, but it is still not good. Can you send me a copy of the article about the newer surgery. I would greatly appricitate the help.
r,
Joe and Dawn Murphy

If so, I'm sorry to hear this. I'm always interested to hear others' experiences, what treatments or surgical procedures they have tried, etc. If you don't want to respond here, please feel free to email me privately.

Would you please email me the article on the 'new' surgical technique for Urethral Polapse.

Thanks

I've been through this off-and-on since late 2001 with my male, Grady. He was about 18 months old when it first happened. I had never experienced it before, but knew others who had, so I knew immediately that he had a prolapsed urethra.

He was bleeding pretty badly, so I brought him into the vet that morning. It was a vet I hadn't seen before, but my mentor used him on occasion because he's closer to her house (and mine) than the local "bulldog" vet. Anyways, this vet confirmed that it was a prolapsed urethra, and said it was the worst one he had ever seen (which didn't give me much faith in the vet because I had heard worse stories from other bulldog owners). He did a good job with Grady, though. He got the bleeding under control, then tucked everything back into place, and decided to insert a catheter to keep Grady from causing further irritation to his penis when urinating. The vet also checked for crystals or excess protein in his urine, and everything was perfectly normal. The next day, we had a follow-up visit to the vet's office. The vet was amazed at the improvement, and removed the catheter. I continued to keep Grady quiet for a few more days, and everything was fine.

Of course, I asked all my bulldog friends about their experiences with urethral prolapses, and I learned the following:

1) DON'T rush into surgery. Surgery should only be used as a last resort for the most serious cases.

2) Use Panalog, or a related antibiotic ointment (a tip I received from a long-time bulldogger, via the popular Dr. Butchko in CA). Make sure to get the Panalog tube with the long tip. Insert the tip directly into the end of the penis and squeeze the ointment in. Do this three times per day for a few days.

3) Use an oral anti-inflammatory. I put Grady on Cephalexin for 10 days, and it helped greatly!

To continue my story, Grady finally did have a major recurrence in May 2002, and I opted for surgery with my regular vet, Dr. Wendt. He was very firm in his warning that this type of surgery is NOT a guaranteed fix. It may work, and it may not. For me, it was worth a try.

Following surgery, the bleeding was really bad during the first week or two, but it finally healed up. Unfortunately, Grady had a few minor recurrences afterwards, but they decreased greatly as he got older. I've been told by many bulldoggers that this seems to be something they will eventually grow out of.

In the beginning, I learned that when Grady would have a recurrence, it would last about a week on average. He would only bleed just after waking up, usually with an erection (i.e. "morning wood"). Immediately, I would roll him on his back and put a cool, damp washcloth over his penis, applying slight pressure to it. Within seconds, his erection would go down and the bleeding would stop. Also, I purchased a "doggie cummerbund" for him to wear indoors (with a women's pad), similar to seasonal panties for bitches. This worked great! You can check out the cummerbunds at the following website:

http://www.fidogear.com/store/merchant.ihtml?id=9&step=2

Eventually, his recurrences reduced to maybe a couple times per year, lasting about 2-3 days. It was usually just a few drops of blood here and there, so I just kept the cummerbund on him until it stopped. It became much easier to maintain, but I hoped it would go away completely someday.

About six months after Grady's surgery (back in 2002), I obtained a copy of an article written in the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association entitled "A Urethropexy Technique for Surgical Treatment of Urethral Prolapse in the Male Dog". It appeared in the July/August 2002 issue. It's an excellent article regarding a newer surgical technique, it's relation to bulldogs, including three case studies involving bulldogs. I have a copy of the article that I can email you, or it's also available to purchase online at the following website:

http://www.jaaha.org/

Since this new procedure has been available, I know of a few people that have tried it with great success. In most cases, their vets were not aware of the procedure, and had to use the article as a guide. Your vet may want to do the same. One of the local vets here has done it quite a few times now and he says it's easier to perform than the traditional methods. He now refers to the older methods as "barbaric". The bleeding and recovery time with this procedure are much less than the older procedures, and the chance for recurrence is also less.

Some vets may tell you to neuter, but this will not necessarily help. My vet claims that neutering is not a solution to a urethral prolapse, as the problem is related to the urethra, and has nothing to do with the reproductive system. I suppose the only relationship would be that with neutering, you remove the testes, which reduces the amount of testosterone, the main source of male sexual behavior. If a prolapsed urethra is caused solely by sexual behavior, then it might help. However, there are other ideas as to the cause of urethral prolapse, especially due to its apparent genetic predisposition in the Bulldog breed. In the article that I mentioned above, one of the bulldog case studies involves a neutered male.

In November 2006, I did finally decide to have the newer procedure done on Grady. So far, it has been completely successful. He had no bleeding at all following surgery and throughout his recovery, and he's had no recurrences. Needless to say, I'm thrilled with the results!

Please let me know if you have any questions, and please keep me posted on any updates. Best of luck to you!

Melanie, Grady & Tori
MnM's Bulldogs

UTI with crystal formation, prostatitis. Definitely a trip to the vet is in order. UTI's in males can become serious. Good luck with your boy!