urinary incontinence in dogs

My Buddy has begun having...accidents...when he is lying down or sleeping. He did it a few times over a matter of months, but now it has become a problem. The poor guy is leaving puddles where he lays. We have a vet appointment later this afternoon. I was wondering if anyone else has had a dog with this. I read online that it is not unusual for dog who have been spayed or neutered to develop this as their hormone levels drop. Buddy is 12 years old. and was neutered when we adopted him at 13 mos old.

My Coidy has had this problem since she was 1 year old. It started shortly after her spaying, and as you say, it is homone related. As you described, she would awake from a nap only to have left behind a large puddle of pee:(

She has good control with 50mg. of Proin 50 (Phenylpropanolamine hcl) twice daily. DES (diethylstilbesterol) is another commonly prescribed drug.

Hopefully your dear Buddy will get good relief from one or a combo. of these two drugs...and you're not alone! Many doggies have this problem and have good results with drug therapy.

Let us know how it goes at the vets:)

P.S...Buddy is precious!!:)

Sandra

DES a female hormone which fell out of favor in the early 60's in human medicine. The theory being is that if a female dog is spayed before the tissues have a chance to generate then there is not enough pressure on the urethra to keep it from dribbling out. The DES causes the surrounding tissues to swell, thereby giving better muscle control.

Back to Buddy... The most frequent cause of incontinence in older dogs is urinary track infection which might include the begining of a kidney infection. A check of a urine sample by the Vet can confirm. Unless your male dog has experienced this all of his life, it's unlikely to be hormone related. Other causes could be kidney stones being passed irritating the track, or metabolic disease such as diabetes or cushings (e.g. Has your dog been consuming more water recently?). You may have to go through some diagnostics to get at the root cause.

Lots of good info. there. The thing with UTI"s however, is that they are usually accompanied by frequency, voiding small amts frequently and urgency, sometimes accompanied by pink or red tinged urine. Any vet would surely order a urinalysis to rule this out first; a very simple and quick test. There are a host of other more serious conditions that have urinary tract related symptomology, such as Cushings and diabetes. But it all likelihood, these conditions would be accompanied by other symptoms that you would probably have already noticed, e.g., excessive thirst, hunger, weight loss etc. A basic chemistry panel, at his age, is definitely in order and would rule out a lot of the above mentioned conditions. What triggers hormone related incontinence in my mind is the voiding of large amts. while sleeping/resting.

DES is used less frequently these days and with greater caution than in the past; the main adverse reaction being bone marrow depression. Being on this medic. for any length of time requires regular blood work to monitor any changes. Most dogs respond favorably to the much safer Proin.

Please let us know how Buddy's doing!

If the dribbling is just a little, you might want to try the belly bands. It's just a band that wraps around the dogs middle and has a place for a pad to absorb the dribble. DrsFoster&Smith are now carrying them.

Mary

Buddy went to the vet yesterday afternoon. He is being treated with some antibiotics for UTI.
Buddy is not drinking more or less than usual, but it does appear that he is not fully emptying his bladder when he goes out and he is going out to pee more frequently. There hasn't been any blood or tinge to the urine that was noticeable.
I am trying to go out with him now so I can watch and see if he is emptying his bladder more. Last night, an hour or so after taking the first of his antibiotics, I went out with him and he peed for a good long time. I checked the bedding where he slept last night and he stayed dry...so we may be on to something with his bladder being still too full.
My son is home during the day since school is out for summer so I have instructed him to let Buddy out frequently and to keep an eye on him to make sure he actually goes.
Sometimes I think Buddy is afraid he is going to miss out on something so he doesn't fully relieve himself.
We're going to watch him and monitor how it goes over the next 10 days and if he is still having trouble then Dr. will get more in depth.

Maybe I'm a little late on this but we've been having the same problem with Angus who is also 12 (going on 13). We took him to the vets on the 26th of May and he was prescribed Phenylpropanolamine 50 mg 2x's/day after they checked to make sure he didn't have any infection.
Well I thought it was working, hadn't seen any dribbles the last couple of weeks but yesterday he went downhill. He had a couple of pretty big wet spots on the linelonium (sp?) and quite a few dribbles. So today I went to the fabric store and I'm going to make him a belly band. The ones I've seen are for up to 75 lbs and needless to say he's a little over that;)
I almost feel like he's going to think it's degrading, but he's pretty good about stuff like that plus he'll only have to wear it when he's in the house.
Please keep us upd on how he's doing:)
Anna