So Storm turned twelve on June 21st 2013 (yeah I have no idea why I wrote that she was twelve last year because she wasn't lol). I feel bad for not posting about it. So Happy Belated Birthday Storm!
I'll give you an update since it's been a while. In the past year or so Storm has had a little trouble holding her bladder, which isn't unusual for an older dog. At first I didn't think anything of it because it happened so rarely, but since moving she has developed full blown incontinence where she leaks when she stands up suddenly and also in her sleep. I'm going to take her in to get checked for UTIs or anything like that, but my guess is that it's incontinence from being spayed young (I had her spayed at ten weeks old because back then I didn't know it was better to wait for their bodies to develop more).
So I've been researching incontinence and I'm definitely NOT putting her on Proin no matter what the vet says. There have been too many dogs that have died of stroke and kidney failure. Not to mention the human equivalent of the drug was taken off of the market because of stroke risks!! The other drug that is mentioned a lot is a hormone drug called Diethylstilbesterol or Des for short. It was taken off the market for humans due to a risk of birth defects, but with a spayed dog that shouldn't be a problem. So my question is have any of you ever used Des? Is it dangerous? If I decide the medications are too risky (and also for a temporary solution until we get her to the vet) I'm going to use diapers on her.... not gonna be fun lol. So anyone with canine incontinence experience I would love to hear from you since this is my first time dealing with it.
Other than the incontinence she is doing well. She is definitely slowly losing her eyesight and hearing, but that's to be expected with her age and her chronic dry eye. She seems to be getting stiff in her hips which makes me sad. Any sign of aging makes me sad because I don't want to admit she's getting old lol. We're sticking to walking right now (instead of biking) to take it easy on her hips. I wish there was a place she could swim besides the yucky pond lol. So that's my update on the old girl. I'll update again after I talk to the vet. :)
