my spayed bitch has been leaking urine when shes been asleep, so i took her to the vets and they ran a routine urine test and came up with a slightly high ph, some crystals and a bit of blood so she was put on a course of 10 day antibiotics and then i took her back where she had another urine test which came back normal. she was then put on propalin syrup, this was ten days ago and ive not noticed any difference. any suggestions? becuase she is getting quite upset with it when she leaks

She might need more than you are giving her. Our 8 year old spayed bitch has been on propalin for nearly 2 years now and we have had to increase the dose a couple of times since then, she is now on a dose that suits her.

Talk to your vet if you are unsure :)

It can take some weeks before Propalin starts to have an effect, and you usually start on quite a high dose then gradually reduce it when appropriate. Otherwise there are Incurin tablets which are supposed to be good.

One of my bitches has the same problem, but only intermittently; we've found it best to take her outside every couple of hours in the evening to empty her bladder. And we badly regret allowing her to get on the furniture because the chair cushions have to be in binbags under the covers to protect them.

shes on the highest dose for her weight, 0.6mls twice a day. i read the side effects and it said that it should be given three times a day. she has never marked on a walk before since this started happening, for example, today on a half hour walk she much have gone at least 8 times.

Hi,

something you could try is to reduce the amount of protein she gets in her food.  If you are feeding a food with 21% protein or higher try reducing it by finding a food with 18% or less - this really works

How common is this incontinence problem with spayed dogs ? ..and is it affected by the age at which the dog is spayed?

It's common enough for Propalin and Incurin, which are only designed for incontinence in spayed bitches, to be manufactured. My bitch who was spayed at 8 years (and will be 14 years old next week) isn't affected but her daughter (spayed at 6 years and now 11½) is. Anecdotal evidence from others suggests that the earlier the spaying, the more likely it is to happen because in this case it's caused by the lack of hormones affecting the competence of the urinary sphincter and the muscular thickness of the urethra.

Oh! - just when I thought I'd made my mind up to get her done after her first season! Hmm...
Thanks JG :)

If it helps, I had two bitches spayed after their first seasons and one never suffered from incontinence at all (she was 13 when she died) and the other only a couple of times (she was 15 when she died). It seems to be completely unpredictable, but generally the larger the breed the longer they take to physically mature, so spaying slightly later rather than earlier makes sense.

Thanks JG - The only dog we ever had spayed was a 2kg toy poodle at 6.5yrs old.
May be an idea to discuss it with the vet and see what experiences he's had before making any decisions with this one as she's the biggest we've ever had.

you wil probably find that the vet probably does not want to discuss this, as I have found they like to keep it quiet. I will check the protein amount, how does this help? because i thought it was related to the lack of oestrogen, not protein levels. protein is 10% in her food

"you wil probably find that the vet probably does not want to discuss this, as I have found they like to keep it quiet"

Oh, nothing's simple is it! :)