Have been reading posts on the arguements for and against spaying a bitch, and in particular some owners have noticed that their bitches suffer with incontinence after being spayed.  I was just wondering if this also happens with neutering males?  Have any owners noticed incontinence in males after neutering?

i have only had bitches so i can only speak from that ...I had to have a girl spayed a few years ago due to a pyo....and she did suffer from incontinence after this ... although she was 12 ................... I personally always worry about anesetic (SP) with our breed although mine are heart checked I still wouldn't do it unless mediaclly required .

I've had many dogs neutered. Both males and females.
I have never had a male suffer with incontinence and only the bitch I have now has suffered 'spey incontinence'. I think this is more due to her breed, Mastiff, than the spey. My other females were all medium sized bitches. My daughter has the sister of my bitch and she has just started with the incontinence and she has been 'done' for over three years. My bitch started within 12 months.

The incontinence does seem more prevalent in some breeds than others, with boxers and Rottweilerbitchess appearing to have a high incidence of this.

............ and Dobermanns and OES - notice a trend here - large breeds, docked?

I know of 2 dogs that were castrated for health reasons as older dogs that had incontinence problems after castration. One lab and one OED.

Had a Cavalier who had to be castrated at 10 years because of a hormonal tumour on the prostate gland, he lived until he was 13 years but became incontinent of urine after the castration. Another of my Cavaliers had to be castrated when he was 9 years, again because of a hormonal tumour in the back passage, he lived till he was 12 and did not become incontinent.

I think it is more prevalant in 'large' breeds than 'docked' breeds.
Maybe with dogs neutered in later years the age has more to do with the problem than the neutering????
Has anyone had a small 'docked' breed suffer with incontinence??
All my lot have been neutered at quite a young age so I'm pretty certain with Ragga that it was the spey as it started within 6 months.

I wouldn't call Chloe particulary small(18/19kg), she is docked though and became mildly urine incontinent when she was 4 and a half(Jan this year), she was spayed when she was 4 as we had(finally!) made the decision not to breed from her.
Her incontinence is successfully controlled with 1ml of Propalin per day and she cleans herself very well when she has been out for a wee unlike our other spayed bitch! Don't know how relevant this is but thought I'd put it in just in case!
Emily

The smallest bitch I have had done was a JRT. She weighed about 13lbs and I had no problems with her. She belonged to my Ex before we got together so she was 7yr old when she was speyed. She lived until she was 20 yrs old with no incontinence until the last few months of her life.
Ragga is the biggest bitch at about 10-11stones in weight she has suffered from 6 months after the spey.
I think the size of the bitch definitely has something to do with the incidence of incontinence. Try saying that in a hurry.

Forgot to say that the vet said this is one of the reasons why they advise on castration if you do not intend to breed from the dog as it CAN cause these sort of problems that I had with mine later on in life.