Medication for Senior Dog Incontinence

by Carrie
(Christiansburg, VA)

Our sheepdog mix is a 13 (almost 14) year old female. She had been an outdoor dog until the last 3 or 4 years as she has entered the senior phase of her life. She has never had an accident in the house even though we never formally house broke her. She just knew what to do. Over the last few days however she has been leaving droplet of urine and once a larger amount of urine when she begins to walk around or tries to get up from lying down (which is hard for her).

As for stress, we have added a younger dog to the family, but after the initial adjustment, they have had little to do with one another. The younger dog is very mobile and our older dog is slow to move around. We have had her about 3 weeks. I would say that has caused our older dog some stress, but we give her a lot of time without interaction from the pup (1 year).

Vet Suggestion Senior Dog Incontinence

Hi Carrie,

From your description, it sounds like your dog is suffering from a form of urinary incontinence that is commonly diagnosed in female dogs as they age. The good news is that there is a medication available that helps most dogs immensely. It is called phenylpropanolamine (PPA for short).

Your veterinarian will first want to run a urinalysis to make sure that a urinary tract infection or other medical condition is not to blame for your dog’s symptoms. If everything looks good on the urinalysis (and perhaps some blood work to check her overall health before starting a new medication), a trial course of PPA will let you know whether or not the medication will work for her.

If it does, then you gradually decrease the amount you give to find the lowest dose that will be effective to control her symptoms for the long term.

Good luck,

Jennifer Coates, DVM