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Solving Incontinence In A Pet Dog
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I had Jodie spayed at two years old after her second season. All appeared to go well and after a fortnight of lead only exercise we were back to normal. Then a few weeks later I realised to my horror she was driping urine and totally unaware of it. It soon became not so much a drip as a flood, I do not know who was more distressed me or my normally clean dog.
When it happened to my dog I could find very little useful information, visits to the vet were both costly and fustrating as I could see no end in sight. I am not a vet, just a pet owner but I ended up spending a lot of time researching causes and treatments to try and help my dog. I have attemped to gather here much of the information I have gained in the hope it will help those of you who find yourselves in the hard position of owning a much loved but leaky bitch. Although I touch on other causes this page is primarily about spay incontinence, this is one of the most common forms and is often controllable.
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Links
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First Moves
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The first thing to discover was whether her leaking was behavioural or caused by something physically wrong. One must check that the dog is urinating without control. An unhouse trained dog is not incontinent! If your dog is unhouse trained the only thing that will put her right is gentle consistent training. Praise when they go in the right place and don't give them chance to go in the wrong. Generally an incontinent dog will pee in her sleep as well as awake.
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Is The problem house training? Try these links below.
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Nerves or Submission
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A nervious or over submissive bitch will leak urine as a sign to others that she is submissive and unthreatening. Others will do this on occassions though fright.
The cure for this is not to respond angrily but instead to boost her confidence by gentle training,a quiet life and kindness. Punishment or over excitment will make this kind of dog worse not better. Jodie a typical boisterous weimaraner did not fall into this type.
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Physical Problems
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One of the first things our vet did was a urine test for infection. It is not uncommon for a dog with an infection to have a sudden break down in house training. If an infection is found to be the cause it can usually be simply treated with a course of antibiotics.
Her urine was also examined for signs of kidney failure, this is apparently quite rare in a young dog but is unfortunatly not usually reversable.
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Following her negative urine test jodie had another examination and looked as usual the picture of health so our vet said he wanted to try her on a drug called Propaline. This drug is used primarily for bitches who become incontinent after spaying.
After three weeks it was clear for her this drug was not going to help. For a large proportion of bitches a few droplets of this drug in their dinner is all it takes to be dry again. Sadly not Jodie.
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The next course of action was Xrays and ultra sound scans. The vet was looking for abnormalities or disease. Things like bladder stones can cause incontinence and are often curable. Although her bladder was larger then usual and set rather far back there were no stones or obvious rips or signs of disease.
Her back and the way she moved was also examined at this time as he looked for evidence of spinal damage. If it had been this I was told the only hope was time and the body repairing itself.
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Drug treatments
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Jodie had already been tried on propaline syrup a popular and often sucessful treatment with no sucess. We were now certain her problem was spay induced incontinence so we now tried a different drug.
She was placed on stilbistril which I was told would act like a hormone replacement and may kick start her body into action. This drug however does carry risks with long term use and these should be discussed with the vet before use.
For Jodie it did not work. We were now left in the hard position of did we have her put down or put her through a serious opperation. Spay incontinence varies a great deal in its severity, some just drip a little when asleep but Jodie had it very badly. She was sore physically and distressed mentally. She was not in a position to be left as she was but was still an otherwise young healthy dog.
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Surgery
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A last resort for incontinence is to surgically reposition the bladder to sit further back in the body. This helps retention by tighening the muscles involved.
The operation is called a Colposuspension, it is rather expensive and is usually done by a vet consultant at an animal hospital rather then a local vet practice. Unlike human hospitals there do not tend to be long waiting lists. Within a fortnight of us deciding Jodie would have the surgery she was there.
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All incontinence pages are designed to be printer friendly. Feel free to print them off.
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Page last updated 5/1/04
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