Question Details
Urinary Incontinence In A Male Neutered Dog
by LaurieJohnson - September 23, 2017    View Case Report
Spanky is a 6 year old male neutered chocolate lab. He was rescued about 2 years ago by some travelers in Hawaii. He was a beach bar dog that wandered around on the beach and lived outdoors.

We initially treated terrible skin and ear infections. He had otitis media and was treated by a dermatologist. The initial thought was that he wasn't potty trained and would just pee wherever he wanted, but it became clear that he had some degree of incontinence when he was put on steroids for the ears. He dribbled while walking. This was worse when he hadn't been out to potty recently. He would start dribbling on the walk to the elevator to go outside.

The skin/ear damp heat had cleared up with diet and treatment, flea prevention, so we tried him on Rehmannia 8 for KD Qi def with some success. We found that if he could get more frequent walks, 3 caps BID seemed to work. That combined with SWXF for external wind and blood deficieny (extremely dry skin) seemed to work well.

Fast forward 1 year later, incontinence is getting worse. We tried SPXS thinking that he wasn't aware of his bladder, but there was no effect. Now he's on 4 caps BID of R8 and he's doing better. He's on cytopoint injections every 2-3 months for itch (parents wanted to stop the SWXF bc lots to give by mouth).

We're trying acupuncture to increase bladder tone and to treat possible IVDD/LS disease, but he has been able to completely empty his bladder (checked on US after voiding) and has normal neuro and no pain or arthritis.

He's on a hypoallergenic kibble diet which I feel is making matters worse, but this is non negotiable. Any other western or eastern herb options or supplements for this dog?

thank you! Laurie
Replies
by LaurieJohnson
September 23, 2017
Oops, I meant to say that he has been on R6, but in my mind I'm thinking that maybe he needs to be on R8!
by naturevet
September 29, 2017
Hi Laurie,

Yes, a Kidney Yang tonic might be better than Rehmannia Six. You Gui Wan has more going for it in terms of promoting continence. There's also a formula called Tu Si Zi Wan that may help - it's focus is urinary incontinence. The disadvantage of it is that the Rehmannia you're using is probably helping the dog's skin, and if you used TSZW, you'd probably see the skin flare up, due to its lack of Yin and Blood tonics and abundant Yang tonics. So I'd go with a Rehmannia-based formula instead

I guess the other thing I'd say is that your doses may be a bit low. Kan tablets should probably be dosed at higher levels, since they are ground dried herbs rather than concentrated granular extracts. Granular extracts allow much smaller doses to be used and may be an option here.

As to the diet, you're fortunate that (at least right now) the dog's skin condition diagnosis in Chinese terms is not as reliant on an unprocessed diet as, say, Damp Heat. A happy medium between kibble and raw or homemade is freeze-dried. I don't bother reconstituting these, so the dogs have something to crunch. It comes in a bag, which makes the owner happy, but is metabolized much more like real food is, which makes the immune system happy. So that may be a good option going forward.

Hope all that helps. There are other options for you - Bu Zhong Yi Qi Tang, as an example. But based on what you've presented, the top pick for now is probably You Gui Wan, which Kan does sell as a tablet

Steve
Reply to this question.
You must be logged in to reply