spay incontinence

[mom2cocoa]

I was wondering if you guys could help me. My dog, Cocoa, will be six years old in a couple of months. She began leaking (spay incontinence) a couple of years ago. At that time, it was intermittent. Once or twice a week maybe..sometimes no problems for a couple of weeks. So at that time I was only giving her the PPA the vet prescribed as needed. Now, if she is not on medication she leaks daily. The problem is, she has been experiencing problems that might be due to the PPA. Namely wierd muscle spasms and behavior that the vet believes to be either some type of seizure or spasms due to anxiety. PPA stimulates the 'fight or flight' response in dogs and increases heart rate. Also causes restlessness. Cocoa is naturally a emotionally sensitive and nervous nelly type dog. So PPA may not be the best medication for her. The vet was considering anti-seizure and anti-anxiety meds for her, but wants to first try taking her off the PPA and see if that helps the episodes. If it does indeed help, we will then try estrogen to help her incontince problem. The problem is, I looked up side effects for estrogen and was not happy with that either. But if I don't give her anything and just manage her incontinence, she is at risk for infections. So I was wondering if anyone can tell me about their experiences with either medication, or if you handle the problem in any other way.
Thanks so much.

[KennelMom]

I've had dogs that used both and didn't have any negative side effects. On a bitch, I would prefer the estrogen since it's a hormone their body would have anyway.

[linnie]

How about looking into the natural estrogen things and adding this to her diet.