One of the nice things about being a veterinarian is that you constantly are learning and seeing new things. Just recently, I saw a new client whose dog was having a problem after urinating. The owner reported that after her male dog urinated he would continue to dribble urine and get it on himself. He was four years old and the problem had probably been going on for a couple of years. The previous veterinarian prior to the owner moving to our area had run a few diagnostic tests on the urine, but did not find anything conclusive.
After hearing the history I started out with a physical exam and pretty soon felt like I had found the possible culprit. Male dogs have a skin fold called the prepuce (similar to foreskin in humans) that covers and protects the penis. In this case, the opening of the prepuce was very narrow and there was a large amount of extra skin. I thought that the narrow opening was leading to the urine pooling in the extra skin and then dribbling out after the dog was done urinating. I suggested that we perform surgery to remove the extra skin and make the opening wider.
The owners agreed and we performed the surgery the next week. I called for an update a couple days later and the owners reported that the problem was resolved and no more dribbling was happening. If you would have told me in vet school that I would essentially circumcise a dog I would have laughed, but like I said earlier, I am always surprised at what I get to see and do as a veterinarian.
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