[leakaufman]

I know this has been discussed before. I have read some of the discussions.
My vet just recommended I have my
18 week old dobie puppy spayed at 5 to 6 mos. She says the pros out weigh the cons and that spay incontinence has not been proven. I think my puppy is wonderful but she is pet quality and therefore needs to be spayed. I would love to have it done as soon as possible but I want to make sure it will not harm her. Has anyone ever experienced spay incontinence on this forum?

 

[brw1982]

Both my girls were spayed between 6-8 months (never had a heat cycle); one has spay incontinence and one doesn't.

Tali's incontinence is managed easily with Proin. She was on it twice per day, but I've been able to cut back to just a few times per week and it's working for her. Fiona has never had any issues with incontinence.

I've heard that a grain-free diet can help manage/stop incontinence and I feed my girls Acana.

 

[the_discowhore]

Poppy was spayed at 6 months and never had any incontinence issues.

Both Cricket and Sammy were spayed when older (Sammy was 3 and Cricket was 4 I think) and both of them were incontinent.

Lottie was spayed at 1 year, Libby at 6 months, neither of them have any incontinence issues at this point in time.

 

[Amelia_]

I have no first-hand experience with this subject, but I was reading about it the other day here The relationship of urinary incontinen... [J Reprod Fertil Suppl. 2001] - PubMed - NCBI. There are also some related articles which might be worth reading

 

[leakaufman]

I have my girl on Acana and I love the food. Thank you for your advice.
I am leaning toward having it done when she is 6 months old. I think she will
tolerate the surgery better at that age rather than waiting.

 

[Lori Kaufman Bewley]

I was thinking of having my Dobe female spayed as well. She will be 5 months too.

 

[SoCalGirl]

I had Elke spayed at about 6 months. I talked extensively with the vet about the pros and cons, and for us the pros outweighted the cons. She had a little incontinence while healing (the first week or two maybe - it gradually went away as her muscles healed) but that has been it.

 

[Coco Loco]

I had Coco spayed at almost 6 months. She has never been incontinent. She definitely bounced back from the surgery...and I mean bounced lol.....as soon as she came too. The vet kept her overnight and she was back home by 9am the next morning. I think they couldn't control a very hyper, 6 month old dobe in the office and wanted her to go home lol!! What was hard was keeping a 6 month old puppy from playing for 2 weeks or getting her stitches wet.....that was the true test for us!!:butfly:

 

[OliviaB]

We had a foster dobe that we spayed at 6 months. She did great and never had any issues. The hardest part was keeping her calm so she could heal!

 

[leakaufman]

I have enjoyed Gunner's pics! I would love to post pictures of Judah and her littermate, Jacklyn but I am computer illiterate and have not figured out how to post pictures yet.
My niece laughed at me because I used my real name as my user name- I did not know.
I love the forum. It has been a great source of information. Thank you.

 

[dobebug]

I don't even keep bitches--only males but I don't think the incontinence issue have been proven either. There are, just for the record, a lot of intact bitches on various diets who are incontinent--some of them from very young ages. I hear about them endlessly from my breeder friends.

Working in a vet clinic I can give you a list of breeds that have a fair amount of incontinence--they all tend to be biggish--Dobes, Goldens, Labs, Greyhounds, Great Danes--and it doesn't seem to make a lot of difference what their age was when spayed.

 

[Murreydobe]

I've owned many bitches in my lifetime, all of them were spayed eventually (some sooner than others). I've only owned three who had spay incontinence, and all three were spayed as mature adults.

 

[Herb2relax]

I had Lexi (rip) spayed at 6 months no incontinence. Kyrah spayed at 6 months she is incontinent. The thing is that with Kyrah I didnt know at the time but will next time. I knew something was strange as she would have so many accidents. But not like going and peeing somewhere. I mean like we are in the middle of playing and she would all of a sudden stop, squat & pee. After her spay I found out what it was. I believe she was more than likely going to be incontnient whether or not I spayed her. Oh and I have had 5 other females, not dobes, that I have had in the past not one has ever been incontinent.

 

[DoubleDogDare]

Not sure what the right thing to do is, but wanted to throw in that many doberman owners are having great success with cranberry pills. They're able to wean their bitches off Proin, and eventually get down to only a few cranberry pills here and there. I'm guessing Darkevs can comment on this?

 

[mmctaq]

I know this has been discussed before. I have read some of the discussions.
My vet just recommended I have my
18 week old dobie puppy spayed at 5 to 6 mos. She says the pros out weigh the cons and that spay incontinence has not been proven. I think my puppy is wonderful but she is pet quality and therefore needs to be spayed. I would love to have it done as soon as possible but I want to make sure it will not harm her. Has anyone ever experienced spay incontinence on this forum?

You might read here: http://www.naiaonline.org/pdfs/LongTermHealthEffectsOfSpayNeuterInDogs.pdf and here: GPMCF: Healthier Respect for Ovaries and here: http://www.cdoca.org/downloads/files/Early SN and Behavior.pdf before you say "needs to be spayed."

Spaying is a medical decision which should be made with the best interest of the individual animal in mind. It is also an owner-preference decision since living with an intact bitch entails a heightened requirement for supervision/management while she is in season.

Just because a bitch is not to be bred does not automatically mean that she needs to be spayed... you can simply not allow her to be bred.

 

[mmctaq]

Not sure what the right thing to do is, but wanted to throw in that many doberman owners are having great success with cranberry pills. They're able to wean their bitches off Proin, and eventually get down to only a few cranberry pills here and there. I'm guessing Darkevs can comment on this?

Cranberry prevents bacteria from attaching and forming colonies on smooth muscle (like the inside of the bladder). If incontinance is due to urinary tract infection, than cranberry would be beneficial to prevent the recurrance of infection and thus the recurrance of incontinance.

If incontinance is due to other factors (muscle tone, nerve damage, whatever), Proin would be indicated and (hopefully!) helpful and I cannot see why cranberry would be helpful at all.

Cranberry and Proin do not have the same action and do not address the same issues.

 

[leakaufman]

I just meant that I was not going to allow her to be bred and therefore she should be spayed to prevent anything accidental from happening. I appreciate the information and different viewpoints. I will ultimately base this decision on what I feel is best for my puppy not on what would be most convenient for me. My vet kept talking about all the health benefits surrounding this procedure. The articles you have suggested bring new light to several different reasons to leave her intact. I will continue to study this subject.

 

[StarlightDobe]

I have had 3 dobe females, currently 2 are in my home and both are spayed, one was done at 9 months (done later than anticipated due to a rpior surgery she had to heal from) and the other done at 6 months, and my previous girl was also done at 6 months. So far the two that I have now are fine, no problems whatsoever. My decision to spay them prior to heat cycles was made on the medical information given to me concerning mammary cancer and the reduction in the likelihood they would develop it having been spayed before or after having a heat cycle. The chances drop if they are spayed before the first heat cycle, which can occur anytime after 6 months of age. My previous girl, Mysti did have incontinence at an older age, she was 8 when she started developing problems and the vet could not say positively if it was resulting from her early spay or if it was just something due to her age and other medical problems she had. She had a tendency to drink ALOT and it was possible she had some other issues going on besides the hypothyroid and Addisons that we knew about. We were going to have her tested for diabetes and some other things when we lost her to an Addisons episode a year ago in October.

I am one of the people of the opinion of having a female spayed and doing it early if you do not plan on breeding her. For one reason, it avoids certain other health problems later in her life, such as mammary cancer and other types of cancer they can develop, two, it avoids messy maintenance and having to manage that each time she comes into heat, trying to keep them in diapers, and avoiding accidents which can be messy and hard to clean up, and three, there is always the possibility you cannot keep an eye on them 100% of the time, none of us are perfect and the risk of accidental breeding is there no matter how hard we try to keep them safe, it is just better to be 100% safe and spay her.

 

[MeadowCat]

If you decide to go ahead with the spay, you may want to talk to your vet about doing a preventative gastropexy at the same time. My vet strongly recommended it and I know several people here on DT have had it done, too. While it doesn't prevent bloat, it will prevent torsion if there is a bloat incident. I don't regret having that done for Shanoa.

 

[brw1982]

Fiona had a gastropexy at time of spay. Tali wasn't with me when she was spayed, so she was not pexied.

MC is right. It doesn't prevent bloat but it can be potentially life-saving in preventing torsion and a spay is such an invasive procedure as it is, I'd rather have it done when they're already opened up for surgery than take my chances with a scare later on. No dog is guaranteed to bloat, but no dog is guaranteed not to either. Just a personal choice.

Healing time is a little longer, incision is a little longer, but aftercare is really not much different from your average spay.