Incontinence

[Mana]

I've been chasing Grace for a pee sample, and will drop it in to the vet on the weekend, but it seems likely that there's a physical cause for her leaking... Though I'm hoping it's just stress / UTI.

It's intermittent, usually when she's asleep or relaxed, varying from a few drops to a whole piddle's worth. If she's aware of it she gets very distressed and tries to clean herself up.

Do you have an incontinent dog?

How do you manage him/her? (I am in a rental property, and if this gets worse Grace won't be able to spend as much time inside... :D )

[Dog_Horse_Girl]

Incontinence can be managed with medication - it's a simple tablet (daily from memory?) for the rest of the dog's life. :D

[Mana]

Really??

Ooh I hope that applies to us!

That would be a big relief!

[SheWolf]

Hi

Poor wee girl. (Sorry couldn't resist)...

There are excellent sanitary pants available for incontinet dogs. They are elasticised and allow full mobility, they come with sanitary napkins and are available in 5 sizes.

Great for indoors, machine washable and only $13.99 including the napkins. You can pm me for where to get them.

[dwynwen]

I have a large breed desexed bitch with incontinence very like your description of Grace's.

She is now about 9yo but has had slight problems since I got her at 2yo.

Currently it's pretty well managed with propalin liquid given with food twice a day. She's on half the recommended dose which 'just' keeps the incontinence in check. By 'just' I mean that occasionally she still has a small leak. I'm reluctant to increase the dose as it makes her hyper (propalin is basically pseudoephedrine).

There is a hormone based treatment as well but we haven't used it so far.

We have hard floors for the most part so cleanup is easy, but for situations where a leak is a problem (eg xmas with the inlaws) she wears waterproof dog pants with a heavy duty pad (the human ones).

[Erny]

Merely out of interest, Dwynwen and Mana ... how old were your girls when they were desexed (assuming they are)?

[Mana]

Grace was desexed just on 6 months, as far as I can tell it was before her first season (I think this is even more likely given her development was delayed by parvo and septic arthritis at 8-10 weeks).

I have heard that letting them have a season first can reduce vaginitis / incontinence risks later on? She's now just over 10 months, first leaked at 8-9 months. Rotti x lab. Her sister has no apparent problems.

[Erny]

Thanks, Mana. How old was her sister when she was spayed?

Just collecting data, 'cause I'm interested in the readings relating to early desexing. :D

[dwynwen]

Merely out of interest, Dwynwen and Mana ... how old were your girls when they were desexed (assuming they are)?

Suki would have been desexed somewhere between 6 months and 2 years, probably closer to 6mths. She was sold by the breeder at 6 mths and rehomed to me 18 months later. The people we got her from never mentioned the occasional incontinence but certainly it was happening intermittently from soon after we got her.

[Mana]

Thanks, Mana. How old was her sister when she was spayed?

Just collecting data, 'cause I'm interested in the readings relating to early desexing. :D

On the same day!

Foolishly, I have them both...

Grace is on the left.

Six months wouldn't be regarded as "early" though would it?

Their brother was done at 9 weeks, I'm not aware of any probs with him... though it's more common with girls isn't it?

[Erny]

Mana - I think 6 months onwards is generally considered to be ok. I'm just generally curious. I'm not keeping a formal count, or anything like that ... I like to ask out of general interest sake, though.

I wonder if Grace's health issues had a bearing on the development/strength of the sphincter muscle. I have no idea, so please don't think I'm pointing to anything in particular.

Thanks for sharing. :D

PS. Your girls both look gorgeous and happy. I don't think you were foolish!

Edited January 26, 2006 by Erny

[Erny]

I've been chasing Grace for a pee sample ...

Mana - you may already be aware of this, but in case you (or any one else that is reading) don't, I find it really easy to collect a wee sample by using a dust pan (make sure it's clean first). I find you don't get your hand pee'd on and it has a good broad area to catch the pee (incase your aim isn't spot on!)

One other reason for teaching dogs to wee on command. I've had to collect so many wee samples in the time I've owned my girl, it really makes that part of life so much easier.

My girl has been having spasmodic bouts of incontinence over the last 2 years. But she's a 12 year old and I suspect it's due to some other underlying condition/s that she is presently being monitored for.

There's some tablets you can get from the health food store too, Mana. I have forgotten their name, but they are for incontinence and if my memory serves me correctly, you can get children dosage (they're the ones to use). They're naturally based, too. If your health store doesn't know, PM me and I'll trot back to my local health food store and check for you.

I think some people use sudaphed on their dogs for this purpose too.

[Erny]

Double post :D

Edited January 26, 2006 by Erny

[Muttaburra]

What a shame to hear about your dog. At her age there could be many causes that I'm sure your vet will investigate for you. One of them can be Adrenal imbalance due to a number of different abnormalities, and other causes such as infections. Once you know the cause and if it is treatable, then plan of management can be done.

Please keep us updated on her progress and hope it is all better soon.

[Joycie]

I've had to contend with this in the 6 months. First was a 2 year old rotty girl (foster) who didn't respond to the propalin, but stilboestrol worked like magic! She's now in a great home.

I currently have a 12 year old lab x rotty who is incontinent. Stilboestrol didn't work, so now we are trying Incurin to see if that works (doubled the dose yesterday). Plenty more options to explore though if that doesn't work.

The hardest part is keeping up with the cleaning - I have hard floors so that's not so bad, but it's the dog beds I have down that she plays musical beds with that I find hard to keep up with all the washing. Hopefully over the next few weeks it can be sorted....

Bottom line is Mana, there are lots of options out there, it may just take a little while to find out which medication your girl responds to best. What your girl is experiencing is probably to do with the sphincter muscle around the bladder (leaking happens when the dog is laying down) - the meds which are hormone-based help to tighten up the muscles.

Good luck, let us know the outcome!

[KOE]

Abby was desexed at 12 months and she became incontinent at about 8 or 9 years, the vet put her on a tablet a day which then made the boys think she was in season after about 12 months, so we took her off that and right up until her death at 13.5 years I either had a doogy sanitary pad on her while inside or just cleaned it up. On her bed I placed a shower curtain covered with an old sheet which I changed morning and night otherwise the stink was yuk.

I also had to wash around her rear end daily so she didnt smell otherwise she would lick her self to the stage where she would get a red raw rear.

[Greytmate]

Incontinence can normally be managed with medication, but sometimes there is a problem that needs to be corrected with surgery.

I know of a bitch that is on the (human) pill to control incontinence, as the first and second medication that was tried did not work, and the third medication was too expensive for the owner to afford.

This bitch was desexed at around 2 years of age. The pill is not 100% effective for her, but really helps.

Good luck with sorting out the problem Mana.

[Mana]

Thank you so much for all the replies - it's really encouraging, whatever Gracie's issue turns out to be.

She's pretty good at peeing on command (piddle piddle piddle pup!) but I will def try the dustpan trick! I was following her around with a shallow bowl... lots of splashwork! As soon as I've got the sample to the vet I can start her on a course of antibiotics just to rule out any infection, and then I guess we take it from there.

I really can't imagine a dog in diapers though?

Would certainly make it harder for her to pass as a savage guard dog when she fronts up at the front door with a pad on! :D

[noisymina]

We had a thread here once - "The Infamous Urine Sample" :D

Finally got it with patience and an icecream container, shaped with scissors, to give a shallow pan with section left in tact for a "handle". Boy, could she hold it when she wanted to. ;)

Odd thing is, we treated it with meds for quite a while and changed her diet (co-incidentally) then got lazy with the meds and, since it didn't seem to be a problem, eventually stopped them altogether. No problem at the moment, but we may have to resume in the cold weather, I suspect.

Vet was of the opinion that we do need to control it, not just for convenience, but because there could be long-term damage if it is not controlled.

Good luck.

[RubyMu]

My minifoxie has had pee problems since she was desexed at an early age (maybe 3 months, it was a while ago now, sorry). She never had problems before being desexed, and the problem arose right after she was done.

She had all the tests, etc, and nothing was 'wrong' with her. We used the tablets for a while, and they did seem to partially work - but she would still sometimes pee in her bed. But we were told by the vet at the time that it wouldn't be good for her to have the pills every day for the rest of her life, so we were told to 'live with it'! So that is what we have done.

We let her out regularly (so the bladder dosen't get too full) and she pees on command too, which helps empty out the bladder before she comes inside. Also, she dosen't get to sleep on the bed all night or on the couches either. She comes onto our bed sometimes, but she knows the command 'end of the bed' and she hops onto a towel or little blanket for a nap with us. It's not totally 'safe' but it means we can have her inside with us without having to change the sheets.

Having slate floors really makes a difference to clean up!