Incontinence

Canine Addison's Disease FAQ

Q. My dog is peeing all over the place, even when asleep!!! What can I do??

A. "Estrogen incontinence" gets its name because when a bitch is spayed or gets older, her sphincter muscle loses tone due to the loss of estrogen in her body.

Since the adrenal glands do provide a small amount of estrogen, even a spayed bitch may not have any problems with leaking until she gets of a certain maturity; however, a spayed AD bitch gets hit with a double whammy: no ovaries and no functional adrenals ...therefore, she can develop a problem in that area (especially when she's completely relaxed, as in sleep).

Vets usually prescribe either DES (estrogen replacement) or what used-to-be-PPA-now-pseudoephedrine (Sudafed). In fact, my daughter's MALE rottie was prescribed PPA for incontinence last month.

These drugs improve the integrity of the sphincter and stop the bed-wetting.