Amazing Kegelmaster

i ask because often we are bombarded with comments such as "just give the baby up to a loving couple", "have the baby and place for adoption", "don’t have an abortion..there are so many who want a child."

all of this IGNORES the significant bodily injury endured by women (and young women) who deliver a baby, besides the obvious (stretchmarks, weight gain…)

i’m referring to:

pelvic floor prolapse
urinary/fecal incontinence
orthopedics issues
et al..

since many think delivery is simply "pant, push, voila!"; should we include in the "fees" about $20K in case the mother requires corrective surgery as a result of staying pregnant to give "a loving family a child?"

also, i’m not for any monetary incentive to ENCOURAGE adoption. this is simply an escrow account that can be accessed at any point for corrective medical care for the mother who endured the physical damage of delivery.

just a thought…
ETA: multiple pregnancies CAN increase the risk of these major issues; but they can and do happen after one delivery.

the point i make is that pregnancy is not a simple act of pushing out a child. also, not all government assistance will cover these procedures, as many view some as "elective."
i also agree that mothers who relinquish should have access to FREE mental health counseling. and the counseling provided by quack "birthmother counselors" at adoption agencies, who only diminish their loss, and keep feeding them with "it’s the hormones", "you are loving"…et al.

No. We pay for that stuff in our tax dollars for every woman on government assistance as it is.

However I would like to see an adoption tax added to each transaction that funds birth control education in elementary school and maybe if the woman wants to get her tubes tied after birth, that should be an opt-in covered expenses.

I have five ruptured disks, Scheuermanns Disease, and a handfull of Schmorl Nodes. I’ve been thinking about getting this all fixed by surgery but I dont know what the risks are. My biggest concern is I hear it is very easy to become incontinent as a result of this surgery, this scares the crap out of me (no pun intended). My question: What are all the risks? Is it Urinary or Fecal incontinence? HELP

Number4, I had to have disc surgery back in the mid 80’s all they had to do was a partial discectomy, where they removed 1/2 the disc @ l-4 l-5 No fusion necessary simple to what you are going to. Go to this medical site web md and do a search on ruptured disc and surgery you should be able to get the answers you need. Good Luck Rita V

15 week old terrier mix; she had her spay 2 days ago. Since then, every time I take her out to pee or poo (which she has been going), she will then go again within 15-20 minuets of having come back in. Is this a normal reaction to surgery, or a complication? If it is the urinary spay incontinence problem, is that treatable (I’ve been getting some mixed info on that one)?

Personnaly i would contact your vet and ask them if anything went wrong with ther surgery and explain what is happening now!

However, there are several different defined causes of incontinence, each with their own recommended course of treatment. Estrogen responsive incontinence, commonly called spay incontinence, is the most frequent cause of involuntary urination in female dogs. It can occur anywhere from immediately after spaying up to ten years later, with the average age of onset being around three years. Urinary incontinance can also be caused by bacterial infections, trauma resulting in nerve damage, and anatomical defects.

Fecal incontinance will usually be the result of trauma causing paralysis of the sphincter muscles, megacolon, which generally occurs in cats, though dogs can experience this condition, and in animals that experience irritable bowl syndrome.

Medical Management

Treatment of incontinence is normally managed medically, with drugs and dietary changes. There are many different medications on the market today aimed at relieving the symptoms of incontinence with the choice being fully dependant on the underlying cause.

Phenylpropanolamine (PPA) is a decongestant that helps to tighten the sphincter muscles and is the most commonly used treatment for urinary incontinence in both male and female dogs today. Many dogs are started on a PPA regimen in the beginning, with the success rate being about 50%.

Bulking products such as fiber supplements as well as dietary changes to a prescription diet high in fiber will be prescribed for aniamls with IBD and megacolon, as well as manual stimulation. Dogs that experienced trauma affecting the nerves that control defecation will normally not be able to benefit from medical management and will require surgical intervention.

I have a 15 yr old spaniel cross, he lost his eyes due to glaucoma 3,5 years ago, not long after that he developed diabetes , and about a year ago he started with urinary incontinence, and now he walks in circles everyday, until I stop him.

I have taken him to the vet, numerous times, and due to his age and diabetic status, any kind of surgery is a big NO.
so my vet has in very minimal words told me to give him love until he has no quality of life left, or perhaps passes away naturally.
I am not even sure what constitutes quality of life for him… I mean, he still wags his tail, he walks around, even though he bumps into everything and gets lost in the garden for hours… he enjoys his food, and affection from me, I dont walk him a lot because its a very slow walk… but when we go he does enjoy walking.
I have to make sure he eats and gets an insulin injection every 12hours… that means sometimes no matter where I am I have to excuse myself or leave early due to my dog… not many understand this
he is on medication for urinary incontinence but doesnt always work… I often have to wash his bedding and him regularily …not to mention that he does accidently walk into his poo or the other dogs poo, and brings it inside too, I am more often than not washing poo off from under his feet

are there other people out there with a similar situation.?.. how do you cope having such a needy dog?
some days I am so tired, he is hand full, and has meant some sacrifice from me, but I just love him, and he makes me laugh and he is very cute and fluffy… so having him PTS is not an option

I just want to know how other people out there deal with their dogs that demand lots of attention and time.

from
Marilyn
please share your stories with me .

Your dog’s quality of life doesn’t sound bad to me! I mean yes he has limited or no sight, but that’s not a big concern since the sense of smell is how dogs get around anyway. his diabetes are managed by his wonderful owner. and maybe he has some dog dementia. which i am sure you lovingly manage also. i would take him off the urinary incontinence meds. does too little good with too high risk of side effects.

but don’t rule out PTS in the future. my dog suffered from kidney disease, and he died violently seizing. to think of him having awareness for those seizures wrenches my heart and i can’t let myself think that he felt them. i would have put him to sleep if i had known. your vet is wrong. dogs rarely die peacefully in their sleep. but you will know when it is time, and now is probably not the time yet.

yes aren’t dogs a lot like elderly people? they go through the same..loss of senses, dementia, loss of bladder and bowels..disease..arthritis.. but it is so worth it. you gave him this chance at life and will see him through his death, he will never suffer heartache.

a tip for the incontinence..try putting an old plastic or vinyl tablecloth on the floor or over his bed. easier to clean.

add: I just read the other answers and have to say i’m shocked people say this is a bad or no quality of life. since when does urine incontinence, blindness and diabetes mean bad quality of life? that’s part of having senior dogs.

I’m pregnant with my first and have been doing a lot of reading lately about elective c-sections. That’s where a woman chooses a c-section herself and does not attempt vaginal birth.

The reason many women pick this is because vaginal delivery causes urinary and sometimes bowel incontinence that can last a very long time (if not forever), and also uterine prolapse later in life. Elective c-sections, i.e., NOT emergency ones where you’ve already been in labor for awhile, reduces the incidence of these problems. Also, it is now such a safe surgery that OB’s are calling the risks and benefits of a vaginal vs. c-section to be "a wash."

At first I wanted a vaginal birth 100%, I didn’t want unnecessary abdominal surgery, I wasn’t afraid of pain or anything, etc. etc. but the more I read about it in large scientific studies, the less I believe that’s such a good idea.

This is partly because "natural" childbirth isn’t so natural anymore! The female pelvis has been accommodating 6 lb infants for much of prehistory, and now the average Western kid weighs 8 lbs at birth in some areas! According to the best research, more than half of all female bodies can’t handle an infant of this size "naturally" without causing some real damage to the muscles and nerves of the pelvic floor. I was stunned to read how common these problems were and how long they lasted – for many years in a significant number of cases. Nobody told me – and I feel like I didn’t sign up for that.

I am therefore strongly considering an elective c section. Sure, a perfect vaginal birth is the best option – but there is no guarantee that anybody’s birth can be really uncomplicated or perfect. I think I am changing my mind about it.

When I say this, I get a lot of strong negative opinions on elective c sections from women, and I am puzzled as to where this vitriol comes from. Are people merely afraid of surgery, or they just don’t like Western medicine, or they want you to suffer as much as they did, or what? It seems like a really viable option to me, since the modern c-section is such a safe procedure in 2010.

There are risks and benefits with both, so you just have to weigh those risks and choose which ones you can best handle.
It’s very rare but incontinence can happen through cesarean too, if the doctor accidentally cuts the bladder or bowels. Either way giving birth is risky.

That being said, I had a wonderful c-section experience. I had little to no pain and could move just fine and take care of my baby perfectly as soon as the catheter was removed. I prefer the c-section over vaginal any day!

I have a medical condition that has started to cause me to have urinary incontinence. There is a surgery but before I can get the surgery I’ll have to just deal with it for about a month. Since I am allergic to most medications my best option is diapers. It is very embarrassing. But since I need to wear diapers I wanted to know what would be more comfortable. Comfort is the only concern here.

I like depend fitted briefs they have never leaked for me and they are as comfortable as diapers come.

I am in the 3rd month of my first pregnancy and am worried about the effects on a woman from giving birth vaginally. Before I thought much about it I thought, "of course, I’ll have an unmedicated vaginal delivery, because that’s the best way to go." But the more I read the big, long-term empirical studies with thousands of women in them, there seems to be a strong correlation between vaginal delivery and urinary incontinence and/or vaginal prolapse in a woman’s later life. Now of course many women who give birth vaginally don’t have these problems! But the literature seems to suggest that they are more prevalent in women who did so vs. c-section delivery, and that the WORST outcomes are in women who try to give birth vaginally end wind up having to have a c-section or forceps delivery anyway. Furthermore, I have also read a good bit about vaginal tearing and fecal incontinence, as well as loss of sexual sensation in women who have complicated vaginal deliveries. It makes it sound like it might not be the best bet for a woman, if she can avoid it, all "natural" considerations aside.

I want to make it clear that I am not concerned about the pain associated with vaginal birth. I am concerned about the long term effects on my health. My doctor is willing to perform an elective c section and I have confidence that he is more than capable of performing this (after all) pretty standard operation, but ya know, it’s major abdominal surgery too, with risks and potential complications of its own.

In fact when I asked my doc which was better, he said, "It’s basically a wash – there are benefits and drawbacks of each." I am interested in the reactions of others to this statement since I know elective c sections are both controversial and on the rise. Did you go one way, and wish you’d gone the other? Were you happy with your choice? Let me know how you view this option.

The risks that carrys from a vaginal birth are much lower than from csection not to mention the pain and the fact that you will have to fight for a vaginal birth (if you decide) with your next child as some doctors will not like to do VBACs. What you outline of the risks that a vaginal delivery can cause like prolapse, incontinence (which can also just come from age with a women who has never had kids) and loss of sexual satisfaction are all quite low. I myself have had two drug-free births and my first i tore and needed 6 stitches and my sex life had never been better and then i had my son which i had a small tear and graze with no stitches needed and my sex life is still great. As for the incontinence that can help helped a great deal by doing your pelvic floor exercises/kegals regularly during pregnancy and after and right through your life to help prevent this from happening. I don’t do them too much and sometimes experience a little bit of a leak if i sneeze if i have a full bladder but sometimes people who have never had children get this or even women who have had a csection as the pelvic floor has a lot of strain on it just from the pregnancy its self.

A complicated vaginal delivery all depends on many things but most of it starts from little interventions or just lack of knowledge on the mother behalf. Things like an assisted delivery by forceps or ventouse or very preventable. The key is KNOWLEDGE!
Here are just a few…..
# Follow Optimal Fetal Positioning during your third trimester to avoid your baby getting in a bad position which can highly effect how the labour can go and sometimes make it a harder labour ending up with forceps or ventouse
# Do NOT push on your back. Being on your back makes your pelvis much smaller and makes the chances of your baby getting stuck much much higher as they will often get stuck behind your coccyx bone. Being upright opens the pelvis right up and it is also easier for you to push and reduce the chances of tearing. Squatting can open up your pelvis by a major 30%
# Have an active birth. This means you do not get confined to the bed with monitored and that you get upright, change positions, walk around, go in the shower, hop in the tub, lean over a birthing ball
# Choose the right OB or even better to choose an independant midwife or care lead by midwives as the lowest rates of intervention happens at home with private midwives and with midwifery-led care, and the highest rates of intervention happen in private hospitals with private Obstetricians. However this is not to say that you can’t have a natural birth in a hospital – you just need to prepare yourself and your support team very well and be prepared to firmly stand your ground.
# Just get knowledge in general. Do your research. The more knowledge you have the more equiped you will be on how to have the best birth possible and how to avoid nasty interventions which you may constantly hear about.

I highly suggest you read
"Ina Mays Guide To Childbirth"

A MUST watch doco is
"The Business of Being Born"

and a great website (even though Australian based) which is full of wonderful information many women do not hear or learn about through their pregnancy….
http://bellybelly.com.au/articles/birth

Our Saint Bernard puppy is overflowing with a medical issue that causes urinary incontinence. He pees on himself in his sleep occasionally (he’s gotten better at holding it for short periods of time) but he ALWAYS drips. I have to clean his dog bed and our floors constantly due to him dripping wherever he lays down and as he walks. It is also bloody… but this isn’t a problem I need advice on anymore.

Because of this incontinence, and him always dripping and sitting in his own urine, you can imagine the horrid smell and just foul state he would be in… I feel bad for him. The problem we’re having though is that he is absolutely 100% terrified of water. He has been with us since he was 9 weeks old and has never been given any reason to be afraid of water in his time with us. He is almost 7 months old and 80 lbs now and expected to be 150+ pounds full-grown.

He will not go near his dish while we fill it with water, he runs from me whenever i mop, he cowers in the side of the yard if the sprinkler is on or if we are watering the rose bushes. He leaves the room if we turn on the sink, dishwasher or washing machine. He never goes into a bathroom. If water in not 100% still he will not go near it.

So our problem is this: He needs a bath. He ALWAYS needs a bath due to his condition but we’re so afraid of traumatizing him with the water. It’s really a catch 22… he had an exploratory surgery to diagnose his condition, and is sewn up… the urine and blood festering on his wound is just NOT healthy. I clean him with a rag and hydrogen peroxide often but he needs more than that.

What can I do to help him get over his fear? We’ve tried playing in it with him to show him it’s fun and safe… we tried playing with him in a lake once but he wouldn’t even step into the water. He refuses. What can we do??
We have a cat and he has bath issues too… not that helpful. but thanks…

In a situation as yours, I would speak to the Vet about the possibilities of a sedative AND taking him to a professional groomer. (and I don’t mean a place like Petsmart or Petco) Maybe after a few times of doing this, he will get more use to it. (desensitizing the issue)

I have a dog that starting peeing every time she’s let in the house. We’re talking within 1sec-10 mins.

Yesterday my husband brought her in for a bath and to crate her a night and as soon as he placed her in the tub she squatted. He washed her and took her back outside. My husband doesn’t do the ‘dog thing’ so his solution is to just keep her outside. Which is fine, they have a dog house we built for them (all out 2 by 4s, haha), food, water and we still take her on walks and play with her.

But she didn’t have this problem before…well she wasn’t fully house trained but she never made messes so fast. I checked out the ASPCA website and got this:

"If your dog soils indoors, it’s important to visit his veterinarian to rule out medical causes before doing anything else. Common medical reasons for inappropriate urination and defecation include gastrointestinal upset, a change in diet, a urinary tract infection, a weak sphincter, hormone-related problems after spay surgery, bladder stones, diabetes, kidney disease, Cushing’s disease, neurological problems, age-related incontinence and certain medications. Please see our article on Medical Causes of House Soiling in Dogs to learn more."

I know the obvious answer is to take her to the vet but I’m looking for anyone whose had this problem and what they did/turned out.

We have had a similar problem, once it turned out to be a bladder infection, the other time it was caused by a medication (prednisone) that made her drink water like there was no tomorrow. Did you just get her spayed? I think a visit to the vet is probably what you need

I have a dog that starting peeing every time she’s let in the house. We’re talking within 1sec-10 mins.

Yesterday my husband brought her in for a bath and to crate her a night and as soon as he placed her in the tub she squatted. He washed her and took her back outside. My husband doesn’t do the ‘dog thing’ so his solution is to just keep her outside. Which is fine, they have a dog house we built for them (all out 2 by 4s, haha), food, water and we still take her on walks and play with her.

But she didn’t have this problem before…well she wasn’t fully house trained but she never made messes so fast. I checked out the ASPCA website and got this:

"If your dog soils indoors, it’s important to visit his veterinarian to rule out medical causes before doing anything else. Common medical reasons for inappropriate urination and defecation include gastrointestinal upset, a change in diet, a urinary tract infection, a weak sphincter, hormone-related problems after spay surgery, bladder stones, diabetes, kidney disease, Cushing’s disease, neurological problems, age-related incontinence and certain medications. Please see our article on Medical Causes of House Soiling in Dogs to learn more."

I know the obvious answer is to take her to the vet but I’m looking for anyone whose had this problem and what they did/turned out.

We have had a similar problem, once it turned out to be a bladder infection, the other time it was caused by a medication (prednisone) that made her drink water like there was no tomorrow. Did you just get her spayed? I think a visit to the vet is probably what you need