Vet has suggested this for my bitch.  Because my dog is so young the vet thinks this would be preferable to keeping her on drugs for the rest of her life.  The op involves re-positioning the bladder and stretching the urethra.  All sounds quite scary to me so has anyone on here had experience of this with their bitch(es)?

My bitch had this operation about 5 years ago after she became incontinent after being spayed at 5yrs.  It was very traumatic but worth while in the end.  Initially it had an imediate effect but then she started leaking again.  We now have it controlled by using the drops and this will be for her life time.  We had hoped that the operation would be a complete cure but it was not to be.  However, without it we had a leaky bitch even with the medicine.  She hated being wet and was very distressed by it.  She was very fit at the time of the op (and still is) and it was very difficult to keep her quiet for the 4 weeks that the vet recommended.  The op was done at Davis White - I see you are in Hertforshire so perhaps that is where you are have been referred to.  Cost around a £1000 and although we were so worried on the day of the op our girl came through and has such a better life now (plus we don't have constant wet beds).

I know it is scary and you can't help being frightened.  It certainly put me off getting bitches spayed unless medically necessary.  I hope you are able to make the choice that is right for the both of you.

Thanks for that, you've given me more to think about.  The vet did say that the op didn't have 100% success rate which is why I thought I would ask the question.  The vet recommends the op because our dog is not yet 3 yrs and doesn't like the idea of her being on drops all her life.  Also, the drops have had an effect on her behaviour in that she is quite restless (restless GSP :rolleyes:), however, she is on a high dose at the moment so that could calm down as the dosage is reduced to find the correct level. I think when we go back in a month I will ask more about how the operation works as I don't really understand how fiddlng around with the bladder and urethra cures incontinence brought about by hormone imbalance. 

I don't know which breed you've got but keeping my dog from leaping about is impossible.  She 'dances' when you return to the house after fetching something from the car or telling her it's dinner time and even gets excited and jumps about when I go to open the door into the garden which is allowed freely. 4 weeks rest?

My girl is a golden retriever who doesn't realise that she is now 10yrs old.  She doesn't understand the words calm, or slowly so I know where you are coming from.  However, the first few days of the op she was slower as she was generally unwell.

We had trouble getting the dose right but found for a 30kg bitch worked out at about 20 drops twice a day.  (Urilin drops)  The tablets whcih I forget the name of didn't work at all.  I have never thought that the medication effected her behaviour although they do warn of that in the leaflets.  She has now been on medication since early 2001 and combined with the op we seemed to have it under control.

Somewhere in my doggie paperwork I have an article on the op, it was in one of the dog papers, I shall have a look for it and if I can find it will post again so that you can give me an address to send you a copy.

I believe that the operation really is as a last resort as it is a major op.  However, it gave my lovely girl back her quality of life.  She hated to be wet and no reassurance could make her feel better so although I was beside myself with worry, as were all the family, for us it was the right decision.

I have no experience or knowledge of this operation, but have had some negative experiences of Propalin on one of my bitches and some of her offspring, both mental and physical.  I would be very cautious of using it again, so am interested to see there is the possibility of an op.

The operation my girl had was called a urethropexy - this operation entails sutures placed around the urethra itself which is anchored to tendons just in front of the pelvis.  This procedure moves the bladder forward into the abdomen and thus has all the advantages of colposuspension. 

I have attached a link for an article  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed written by Davies White and the link also for their website  http://www.vetspecialists.co.uk/

I hope this explains a little better than I can.

Sorry that first link doesn't take you to the article.  However, if you put in urethropexy in bitches in the search area you will come up with an article by Davies White that was published in the Small Animal Journal in 2001.