Read the disclaimer . The topic I wanted to cover today was how governmental and corporate decisions can affect your dog. For instance, the Federal Drug Administration has announced a plan to ban the drug phenylpropanolamine, used to treat urinary incontinence in dogs. Then I realized that would be putting the cart before the horse, as we had not discussed urinary incontinence in any detail yet.
Urinary incontinence is defined as an inability to voluntarily control urination.
In dogs, this condition is seen primarily in middle-aged to older spayed females. Seriously, control of urination has several key components, and one of those is the urethral sphincter. This muscle is located at the neck of the bladder, where urine flows from the bladder into the urethra to be voided. Think of the urethral sphincter as a valve controlling the flow of urine. In dogs with sphincter incompetence, the valve is leaking.