Phenylpropanalowhat?!

Lilah probably sees the doctor more frequently than me.

About a month ago, she went in to see the vet due to leaking.  More specifically, she was suffering from incontinence. The vet diagnosed her with a weak bladder sphincter, which is more common in older female dogs (humans too, so I hear).

What followed for the next few days was a nightmare. They shaved the area around her delicate parts because she had some acid burn from the urine. That more than anything irritated her. Lilah was constantly squatting down and twisting to lick herself. That was the first problem.

What compounded the issue was the medicine doctor prescribed, phenylpropanalomine. I think I spelled that correctly. It's supposed to help keep the muscle contracted so urine doesn't leak out. But the dose was probably just too much because Lilah was only peeing once a day.

So we'd take Lilah out and she'd immediately sit down and lick herself. She was suffering from the acid burn, razor burn, and constant irritation from her licking along with her muscle being tightened. She was suffering and I was going crazy trying to get her to pee and worrying about her doing serious damage to herself by not peeing.

She also refused to leave the comfort of her rugs. She only drank if we brought her the water bowl. And she only ate from her rug while I hand fed her. My mom said she was able to feed her from Lilah's bowl, but not for me. Hand feeding only.

The next day was more of the same. At least she took the pills easily. Oh, and she wouldn't let us near to wipe her in order to help keep the inflammation and burning to a minimum.

Finally we smartened up (not as much as possible though, because we didn't call the vet), ceased the medicine, washed her back end, and put an e-collar on her. Luckily the one I had leftover from her spay surgery still fit.  

Thankfully things got a little easier after that.  The vet called to check in with us, pretty much called a spade a spade, and told us we were foolish for not calling him with our concerns.  But still, it was pretty stressful week for all of us.  

Oh, and she's still on the medication, though a greatly reduced dosage.  I'm hoping that if we can just trim down her weight, her incontinence will magically go away.  Otherwise it's phenylpropanalomine for life.