[Diz]

You have all been so helpful in the past, hopefully you will come to my aid again. Our male bassett Arlo, was neutered several weeks ago, he came through just fine, but in the last week he seems to have lost his bladder control, we took him back to the vet, they did some test and said he didn't have an infection bu they recommended that we put him on antihistamines! The vet tech's explaination din't make any sense and I told them I did not like the idea of giving medication unless I knew why and she intimated that this may be a forever thing!
He only does this after dinner,and it lasts about 2 hours, now I'm thinking he is afraid of the dark or something.....since now its dark when he goes out after eating.....
Any ideas?

 

[Merlin]

No answers for you, but a couple of thoughts.

How old is Arlo? Was he fully house-trained before the surgery?

How did you treat him when he came home from the surgery? Did you make a big fuss over him? Did you make a point of staying with him when he went out for a pee? After supper what's your family routine? Does everyone go off and do something? Perhaps after the hustle and bustle of getting dinner ready, he feels lonely. Perhaps he's afraid of the dark.

I would try taking him out on a leash. If he hesitates at the door, bribe him out with a treat and reward him when he does what he's supposed to do. All-in-all, make it a positive experience for him.

I'm with you about giving drugs (to me or my babies) unless I understand why.

Good luck.

 

[Barbara Winters]

Incontinence after neutering can occur but is relatively rare. The reason for the antihistamine is that these types of drugs help certain types of incontinence and your vet is most likely doing a medication trial before performing other more extensive and expensive tests.

Drug therapy is designed to increase the smooth muscle tone of the proximal urethra. The smooth muscle is under alpha adrenergic control, and to increase smooth muscle tone a drug trial with an alpha-receptor agonist should first be tried. Two drugs commonly used are phenylpropanolamine and ephedrine; phenylpropanolamine is preferred.From SPHINCTER-MECHANISM URINARY INCONTINENCE

Additional testing that is used to diagnose the cause of incontinence is described in detail in Workup of the Urinary Incontinent Dog by Richard Walshaw, BVMS

I'd certainly look at behavioral issues in addition to the medication trial. If this only occurs at night, go outside with him on leash and make sure he goes. Bring a flashlight so you can see that he really is peeing. Also you may want to start a housetraining refresher course to make sure this isn't a factor.

Good luck and please keep us posted.

[ October 07, 2003, 08:29 PM: Message edited by: Barbara Winters ]

 

[Mikey T]

Spay incontenence is more common in females but in both sexes it is believed to be linked to a decreased sex hormone. The decreses in sex hormone occurs gradually after nuetering so it not common for spay incontenence to occur immedately after spaying but months and years later.

PPA is no longer available by perscription because it is linked to stroke in female humans. Since the type of stroke it causes is exceedingly rare in dogs it can still be obtained from commpounding labs but the price is greatly increased, many vets are curently looking for a more cost effective alternative.

Rheegs and Bandit, the two beagle girls are on PPA for spay incontinence. The sympton of both girls were wetting the bed while sleeping. It is a classic system of a weak urinary sphincter.

 

[Diz]

Thanks all for your taking the time to respond. I think we have narrowed Arlo's problem down to a behavioral thing. He does not "leak" at all, he just pees in the house after he eats his dinner and while we are finishing ours......We are trying with some success to prevent this by getting him out the door as soon as he finishes dinner (in the middle of our dinner I might add). It is helping to a degree, there's still a problem not as frequent. I think he wants the attention or after gorging on his kibble his bladder can't hold out so long. Thanks again..

 

[Mikey T]

another solution might be to wait to feed him until after you eat an have more time to monitor the situation.

The theory of pack heirarchy as it relates to humans and dogs ( which I do not subscribe to) mandates that humans eat before dogs because in wolfdom the Alpha dog eats before lessor pack members.