I'm surprised to hear the link between spaying and incontinence. I have worked for a vet for years and we have always recomend spay/nueter between 6 and 8 months. We had a thriveing practice and VERY few patiences that had inconince proablems. And we had lots old,young and inbetween and most had been spayed before maturity. The few that did have proablems were very old, like over 14 years of age. So my expericen is telling me diffrent from the many articles I have read. What is your personal expreince? Im interested in things you have witnessed, not "sally's x-boyfriend said...." (and I apoligize if any of the posters are named sally, its just a name I picked out of thin air)
Thanks for sharing you experinces.

Nine years ago I had my lab spayed at 6 months, as recommended by my vet. She developed incontinence shortly thereafter. When I brought her to my vet he said in his experience about 20% of bitches develop incontinence after spaying. She's been on Proin ever since - tried to wean her off but managed to get the manufacturers recommended dosage at the time of 2 or 3 times daily down to every third day.

We sold a girl to a pet home and they had her spayed at 4 mos per a recommendation from their vet. She developed an incontinence problem right after spaying. We now have in our "guarantee" that they must wait until at least 8 months. BTW, our girls never come into heat before 12 mos.

30+ years ago my then puppy was spayed at the age of 6mths. At 2 years she started to leak. I took her to a diferent vet who told me it was not uncommon for early spays to result in incontinence and perscribed hormones for my girl. The leaking stopped but would start again if I tapered or forgot a pill or two. So it isn't new news that early spaying can lead to leaking.

I spayed a bitch at 6M; at about 11 years of age she started to leak. A short course of estrogen injections (small dose) stopped the leakage. I think we repeated it once more. Just like everything else, some bitches will leak post-spay as they age, and some won't (and just like us human females - spayed or intact!)

Thanks for the respones! Now here a new question, were we just luckly to not have clients devlope this proablem, or maybe was it some technique that my vet did differtly? I wish he was still in the area so I could ask him But he isn't due to an ill family member.