Have noticed this week that Lucy (rotty) is starting to leak slightly when she gets up from her bed, she did this a lot when we first had her but we put it down to the fact that she had recently had puppies and had also just been spayed. We're not really sure of her age but I'd guess she's got to be at least 6 or 7 now. i know I can go to the vet and get tablets etc to sort this but I was wondering if there was any natural remedy that could help. Any one got any ideas?

Could she have cystitis? My mothers dog suffers with this and when she gets an attack of it, she always becomes a little incontinent.

Your mother or her dog?? :D :D :D :D :D

Fiona (sorry, couldn't resist)

Ha, ha, Fiona. As I was typing, it did occur to me that some wit would twist it. I did ask for it though :-)

I actually used cranberry capsules from the vitamin section for my old Yorkie to help prevent her UTIs (urinary tract infections) which always caused her to become incontinent. Until her kidneys declined, she didn't have any UTIs (about 14 months) after I began to give her one a day. She thought they were very tasty and loved to just eat them without any problems.
Just a thought... never could get her to drink down cranberry juice, but I really couldn't blame her for that. I still can't stand it.
toodles

It's great with Vodka, Sara :D :D :D :D

Fiona

I'm sure i have read somewhere, probably in a dog mag, that there are some very successful homeopathic remedies for canine incontinence, if this is what Lucy has.....sorry ca'nt help further.

LIndsay

perhaps I'll do a bit of surfing and see what I can find out, while I'm doing it Lucy can have a cranberry juice and I'll have the vodka:D

Thats a bit mean of you. JH

Oooooo, makes my face pucker up to think about it. Can't stand cranberry or grapefruit juice no matter if there are copious amounts of alcohol blended with it :p

Hi, it could just be the result of spaying, it is one of the possible side effects which the vet should have told you about before she was spayed, if it was elective. If she has been spyed very recently I would definately contact the vet to tell him about it. You could contact www.ainsworths.co.uk for homeopathic advice. good luck.

Hi Julie,
Before trying anything out anything on your own, if I were you, I'd contact the vet. Just having puppies & being spayed probably has loosened your dog's sphincter muscles. As a woman, the same thing happens after childbirth, but I just don't see your dog practicing toning those muscles on a regular basis :D

For some strange reason, Chienne started having problems with incontinence a while back...no UTI's, it was muscle problems. I took her to my vets (German husband & wife team). She specializes blending homeopathy with traditional vet meds. She prescribed "Caniphedrin-20" 1 tablet (20mg) per day. I believe it is a homeopathic item. Within a week, I was able to lower the dosage to half a tablet and by the third week...no more problems.

I've given it to her from time to time when she's had problems and it helps her out very quickly. The box states (I'm translating from German here) Neuro-hormonal blend for dysfunction of the Blasenverschlussmechanisms (the going-potty muscles)
for urinary incontinence due to castration and whelping.

It was about the equivalent of 10 pounds for a box of 100 tablets three years ago.
hope this helps & good luck with your puppy & her puppies :D
toodles

sorry I seem to have confused things here, Lucy had her pups before we had her, she was picked up as a stray by the RSPCA and had obviously had puppies as she was still lactating but the pups were nowhere to be found so who knows what happened to them. The RSPCA spayed her within a week of finding her and we got her a week later, we weren't too worried about the leaking then as like you say it was probably down to giving birth, and it eventually stopped although it didn't help that she got an infection from the spaying and was really ill:( That was all about 4 years ago now and since then she's not had any problems but now she seems to be aging really fast, she gets 'old lady legs' in the morning and is a bit stiff and has started leaking. I hope that getting the new Shiba pup hasn't been to much for her.
I think I will take her to the vet but I'm really not happy about them wanting to pump her full of pills etc just for their financial benefit when ther could be something more natural we could do.
Golly that was a long ramble for this time of the morning! better shut up and go eat my cornflakes:)

Julie, we had a rottie called Lucy, nothing to do with incontinence but you ve brought back memories, we got Lucy from dogs home, within first week she had distemper type virus and nearly died, and then lo and behold we had milk, our vet took 13 pups from her and spayed her at same time ( so many antibiotics), we had her for 8 years and she was a star, we still miss her after 6 years.

Lorraine

Lorraine,
what a spooky coincidence, was she already called Lucy when you had her? Being a stray ours didn't have a name so we chose something that didn't sound like a typical Rotty name! She is an absolute angel and even with her leaky bits we wouldn't change her!:D

Hi Julie
You could try Dennes Greenleaf tablets available at most health food shops - they are made for animals - I had a Vizsla/Dobermann cross and she started leaking - went the vet route - nothing seemed to help until I tried the Greenleaf
tablets - for Amber they worked wonders - stopped the leaking completely - it did come back sometimes and when it did a few days on the tablets again and she was dry again.
Hope that helps - certainly seemed to work for my Amber
Best of luck
Steph

Might not work but it worked for us. My springer became incontinent about 2 years ago. We tried a lot of different things from the vet but they didn't work. A friend suggested that I feed her a lower protein diet and it worked. She very rarely leaks.

Helen

Julie, we called her Lucy for the same reason as you, strange eh, she was a sweety but loved to sit in front of people who she knew were scared and lift her top lip at them, every year when the xmas deccies went up she would sit and growl at them but we trusted her implicitly, she had a slight limp when we got her and her hip eventually went, but she was a pleasure, we have two rotties now, daisy and lily, real rottie names again. I hope you and Lucy have years of pleasure together

Lorraine

hi Julie

I have a bitch who leakes when she gets out of her bed and she is on Propalin Syrup from the vets, it stopped it straight away.

Jan