Incontinence (From Spaying?) - Better Quality Food Help?

[Mosey_2003]

Mom just called me, the Boxer girly lost all control of her urination coming out of the crate this morning on the way outside and has been dribbling randomly all day. I think the dog is three now, although she may be two, I can’t remember. We had her spayed right after her first heat when she was one (we weren’t waiting for it on purpose, it snuck up on us). She called the vet and he wants her to just start on some sort of pill and see how that goes since the dog isn’t uncomfortable.

My question: Mom likes to buy the cheaper stuff, Purina Dog Chow mostly. I can get Diamond, I think it is, locally at Menard’s, or I could make a trek to Tractor Supply and get Taste of the Wild. Would putting her on a higher quality food do anything to help incontinence or is this just only related to being spayed?

[531]

I don’t know anything about food being related to incontinence, but I do think there is good information on dog food at www.dogfoodanalysis.com.

Personally, I feed Wellness Core to my boxer.

[BasqueMom]

How odd for a dog so young? Our older girl dogs have had problems–like in their sleep. Proin was the pill recommended. But after our border collie went through a week of seizures and we lost her, I did some research on Proin and
was not so impressed. Took the other dog to another vet and she gets DES (a hormone). Started on two times a week and now up to 5 times a week but it seems to do the trick without the side effects of Proin (maybe spelled Prion).

[wendy]

It could just be a urinary tract infection- did they even check?

two good dog food advice sites:

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/

[PiaffePlease]

Dogs can become incontinent from spaying. I knew a dog that had this happen. She was a rescue, and was spayed when she arrived. After spaying, she had problems with holding her pee. It just kinda dribbled out. She was put on a medication and still takes it every day. It has fixed the problem. I dont know what the medication was, but I do know that is was pretty cheap. It averaged out to 30 cents a day or something. If its a human medication, you can get it cheaper at walmart since they have $4 prescriptions. Ive had the vet call in the prescription to Walmart and had no problem at walmart getting it for a dog.

Could also be a number of other things, like a urinary tract infection.

[Big_Grey_hunter]

If this happened suddenly, I doubt it is incontinence from spaying. In one day losing bladder control and dribbling with no previous problems, it’s probably a UTI or something similar. I would take her to the vet.

With our older lab, incontinence was a gradual problem starting with a tiny bit of dribbling when she stood up after a long sleep. It slowly progressed to fully peeing while she slept and dribbling anytime she stood up. I definitely didn’t happen in a single day.

[Chall]

The incontinence that someone told me improved with better quality food was bowel incontinence, not urinary incontinence.

[Foxtrot_s]

She is young for spaying incontinence. Maybe a bladder infection since the tiddling comes on slowly usually. My greyhound became incontinent and vet gave us little pink pills (forget the name, and I don’t have her any more, sadly). The pills are used for humans, too. At first I gave one pill two times a week, and then had to up it a bit. Not expensive, really, either.

[jetsmom]

Ditto the vet check for uti.

[Bumper]

Yeah i’d check with a vet. I agree that she’s young for spay incontinence.

I have one dog on Proin but there is another drug out there that is also good. I just don’t remember what it is. It might be the DES but i’m not sure.

[irkenequine]

Crating for extended periods of time BREEDS UTI’s in female dogs…usually a plastic sheet in the bottom of those things that is porous and holds bacteria (and tapeworms, and everything else…) if it started out of the blue this morning that would be my first recommendation. Get to the vet and have a urinalysis done, they’ll probably just put her on cephalexin and be over and done with it. I would be surprised to hear that it would be urinary incontinence as its presenting itself at a weird age if thats the case.

Most common drug available is Proin which is available (at significant markup through a vet i can imagine) at about 45 bucks for an 180 tablet bottle. Its a 1 mg/kg dosage 2x daily and works very well for most older dogs with spay incontinence. If its severe there’s some injectibles but they are pretty pricy.

I wouldn’t say that any diet is directly related to urinary incontiennce SPECIFICALLY but keeping your dog on a no corn, no wheat diet is just all-around better for your dog. Dogfoodanalysis is a great site. Precise, Natural Balance, Blue, Taste of the Wild, and Science Diet i/d (NOT regular science diet, that’s just all corn) some of the higher Nutro’s and Blackwoods are all in the mid-affordability range and cut the junk food and processing.

[diffuse01]

@Big_Grey_hunter;5730822

If this happened suddenly, I doubt it is incontinence from spaying. In one day losing bladder control and dribbling with no previous problems, it’s probably a UTI or something similar. I would take her to the vet.

Not necessarily, that’s how my females incontinence started… just one day out of the blue, giant puddle. I did take her to the vet to have her checked for a UTI, but she didn’t have one.

[quote=Foxtrot’s;5733530]She is young for spaying incontinence.
[/quote]

My girl is 20 months now and her incontinence started a few months ago… so it can happy.

To OP: definitely have her checked for a UTI first, to rule that out. As for food, from what I know, it has nothing to do with incontinence, but I’d try to get her on something grain free anyway.

My vet put Piper on Proin for it and this is what she looked like 2hrs. after taking it for the first time:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/264688_10100267038205772_68137241_48301447_1943543_n.jpg

She vomited 10+ times 30min. after that, it was like I poisoned her. Awful. So, I personally won’t recommend it to anyone after that experience, although I know some dogs do great on it. I’m trying natural things for Piper now, before resorting to trying the DES.

[danceronice]

I don’t think the food makes any difference–with my parents’ older female nothing has, even taking away water late at night, late walk at 11:30/midnight… (Though she doesn’t go in the house overnight if my dogs are there. Shame?) Cutting those muscles and tweaking around can make it hard for them to control or “hold it.” Though check with the vet, it could be a UTI, but I don’t think her diet will make any difference. With Molly is just seems to be weak muscles and she just can’t always hold it. (Heck, Puff is a male who’s getting up there and he sometimes has to go RIGHT NOW.)