incontinance

[Shawna]

My mom has an eight year old Aussie that's been on phenylpropanolamine for years. She's had to have it increased and is now on 50mg twice a day. That worked for a while however now she's leaking more and more. Anything that might excite her, playing with kids, going for a walk, even getting combed which she loves, can cause her to start leaking small puddles. The problem is that Mom has tried a higher dose and that causes Babe to pant, seek out cold spots to lay and stretch out, and lick her joints as if they were aching.

 

Has anyone had similar problems with this drug? Are there any newer drugs to try? Is it affecting her hormones and making her hot because she always seeks out the coldest places in the house?

[urge to herd]

Hi, Shawna,

 

My 9.5 yr old Samantha is on PPA. She too was on a pretty high dose and was restless, panting, and just generally sounded like your Aussie. A few months ago, I started giving her a capsule of cranberry extract daily, within a week, I cut her dosage in half.

 

Recently, she's started leaking again. I doubled her cranberry, increased the PPA a little bit, (from 75 mg a.m., 37.5 mg p.m. to 75 mg 2x/day) and will be talking to the vet about adding in DES. DES is a synthetic estrogen? (not sure about the estrogen part, it is a synthetic hormone) Dr. Reif has said in the past that he's combined DES and PPA with good luck for other dogs.

 

Oh, and I pierce the cranberry capsule and squeeze it on to her food. That makes sure that she gets the stuff, and that the capsule doesn't pass undigested thru her system.

 

Good luck, hope this is helpful.

 

Ruth n the Border Trio

[Shawna]

Thank you very much. I'll give the info to my mom, she'll be very happy for your help.

[diane allen]

I too have an 8.5 yr. old with the problem. She was on PPA for a few years; we switched to a homeopathic remedy which worked farily well until I switched all my dogs to a raw diet; then all holy he## broke loose. I ended up going to DES, initially one every 3 days.

 

Then a miracle happened! The poor dear had bad teeth when I got her at age 3.5 yr., and she ended up needing a root canal for a canine tooth, and had four lower incisors removed (age 6). Turns out she'd probably had a systemic low-grade infection for years, which I believe affected her urinary system. She'd get very low-grade UTI fairly regularly, which would also cause increased incontinence.

 

Since the dental work, I've decreased the DES dose to once every 10 days! She's only had one problem in close to a year. I'm tempted to increase the time between them, but also a bit nervous about that. Some day, I'll get to one every two weeks, and be happy with that.

 

DES worked for this particular dog ten times better than PPA. Just our experience!

 

diane

[Shawna]

Wow, I never would have thought about the teeth. Mom's dogs have often got guck stuck to their teeth and although I scale them for her sometimes they could use a proper cleaning, maybe Babe has a similar problem. I'll mention that to her.

 

Mom has been waiting for the vet to call her back but for some reason she hasn't heard from him. He's usually quick to call but this time the wait has been way too long.

[Shawna]

Mom said that the vet checked Babes teeth already and they aren't a problem. I phoned a vet in the next town over that does accupuncture and Mom and Dad are going to look into it. The tech said they've had good results with cases like Babe's.

 

Thanks for all the help. Mom's been in tears over wondering how to help her dog. She's feeling more hopeful since she's heard all your replys.