Urinary incontinence - Propalin

gooner99

Hi.

My 13 year old female dog (over 20kg) has a heart murmur and is on a heart tablet, water tablet and because it causes urine incontinence she is on propalin.

Morning - half heart tablet and 0.6mil propalin.

Afternoon/Evening - half heart tablet, one fluid tablet and 0.6mil propalin.

Night - 0.6mil propalin.

All given to her on some ham. She drinks quite a lot of water.

She still has quite bad accidents at times. I'm not sure what is best to do to avoid these. We try to make sure she goes to the toilet regular. Should we increase the dose of propalin, change around her meds or is there something else that's worked for you in this situation.

I'd value your experience and advice.

Thanks.

DBB

Awww I'm sorry to hear that gooner99. I know how kinda helpless you can feel trying to get to grips with an older dog's health issues, especially if there's a few things going on.

But, to be honest, I think you need to throw all of your questions at your vet. It's really not something people here can advise you on. Your vet will know if/how much you can adjust the propalin dosage without affecting the heart meds.

In the meantime, is she dribbling urine unknown to herself, or is it that she is knowingly trying to get out to the toilet but getting caught short in the house?

gooner99

Thanks DBB.

Yeah will put it to the vet again.

Old age doesn't come alone as they say. Worsening problems with her glands filling up too.

Last time they adjusted her water tablet from two per day to one.

Was just wondering if others had experience of similar.

Definitely going anonced to herself. Usually when she's lying down, normally a flood and followed by some dribbling. She's pretty good at going when we go outside and told to. Actually sometimes it happens after she comes back in. Evening time or night usually. Of course her water intake is up with the fluid tablet.

Wonder if I need to consider changing the timing of the water tablet?

jwof2006

Hi Gooner99,

Vet here. This is always a difficult one, it is likely that the furosemide(fluid tablet) is putting your dog over the edge and causing the incontinence.

The timing of the tablet won't really matter, but if your dogs cardiac failure is relatively under control, and her respiratory rate at night is less than 30, you need to ask you vet if you could reduce the fluid tablet dose, maybe to half a day instead of a full one, this is the only way to reduce the amount of accidents. Some dogs have more side effects to fluid tablets than others, a lot of dogs cope fine with very high doses. The fact that she is only on the fluid tablet once daily is a bit unusual usually it is given twice a day, maybe half morning and evening. I think you need to really explain to the vet that you are concerned about the incontinence and press them on whether you could reduce the fluid tablet dose, a swap to half twice a day could help too.

I wouldn't increase the propalin, it is not really intended to stop a dog with a large amount of urine from weeing, it is meant for incontinent dogs with weak bladder sphincter. While it can help with management in a case like this it shouldn't be totally relied upon to stop the signs.

Regards

gooner99

Thanks. Her heart problem is a murmer, no heart failure. She was originally on two fluid tablets, but had bad incontinence. Vet then added in the propalin, but didn't have a great effect. Vet then said reduce to one fluid tablet and stick with that if her coughing didn't get worse. It helped with the incontinence and the cough didn't get worse. She does still cough from time to time, but it happens more when she lies with her paws in the air. She is still quite active, goes for a two km walk and a dip in the sea most days. Do you think I could try two half tablets for a few days initially to see if it makes a difference before contacting the vet?