Urinary incontinence and the female dog

Urinary incontinence in female dogs. Do you have a female dog that leaves a few drops to a puddle of urine behind her after she rests for a period of time? This could be an issue with being able to “hold their urine” and is treatable in most cases so don’t be ashamed.

After being spayed some female dogs will have an issue later in life where they start to leave wet spots where they laid down. Checking further into this it is evident it is urine. What to do next? Don’t fret, there is an answer.

First thing is to have a urine sample checked to make sure other health parameters are ok. The concentration of the urine, evidence of infection or inflammation(or the lack there of) can help streamline our understanding of the problem quickly to the issue with this being a primary urinary incontinence problem. Age of the dog and history of being spayed allow us to be reasonably certain of the problem and we will move onto how to treat it successfully.

Why did this occur? The lack of estrogen leading to atrophy or weakness of a certain muscle in the bladder outflow area is the cause. Not all spayed female dogs will have this occur, maybe about 3% would be the guess.

There are several medicines on the market but the most likely one your veterinarian is going to prescribe is one that contains phenylpropanolamine, an antihistamine. This antihistamine has an odd side effect where it gives the bladder neck “tone” so that the dog can be asleep and not pee the bed. We have used it for years with great success and no side effects.

So, if you do have a spayed female dog that is starting to leak when resting, let your vet know and it can be fixed. It does require life long administration of the drug but it is not costly or should there be concerns about side effects.