[Alicia Mertz]

Question about a medication that my friend was given for her dog...

My friend adopted her dog - spayed female, probably GSD mix of some sort - a few months ago and everything is going very well. The only "problem" she really has is that the little girl "leaks" a bit. My friend has been noticing small spots of urine on the floor after her dog has been laying down for a while, and when she called the vet last week, she was told that this is a common problem with spayed females - they lose control of those muscles somewhat and leave little dribbles behind.

The vet's solution was to prescribe her a medication called Phenylpropanolamine that she is to give the dog three times a day for the rest of her life. My first question, of course, was, "Does the drug have any adverse side-effects?", but the vet did not make my friend aware of any.

Tonight, however, she was talking to someone else about the drug and was told that it causes cancer.

Do any of you know anything about this? I figured Connie might chime in here... LOL My friend called me in a panic asking if I knew anything about it, but I've never even heard of the medication.

Thanks for your help. Just so you know, every single one of you on this board is fantastic and I value your knowledge and advice so much more than I can even tell you.

 

[Connie Sutherland]

Question about a medication that my friend was given for her dog.............The vet's solution was to prescribe her a medication called Phenylpropanolamine that she is to give the dog three times a day for the rest of her life. My first question, of course, was, "Does the drug have any adverse side-effects?", but the vet did not make my friend aware of any.....

OK, I might be wrong, but what I recall is that it causes far fewer side effects than HRT (with estrogen), which would be the other widely-used treatment.

Let me look through saved URLs.

 

[Connie Sutherland]

I found 'em.

I like these two sites very much. The first one is no longer "live," as in the vet stopped answering emails in 2002 or 2003, but I still find him really knowledgeable and quick to say it when he does not know.

http://www.vetinfo4dogs.com/dphenylpropanolamine.html#Phenylpropanolamine's%20alternatives

http://www.vetinfo4dogs.com/dphenylpropanolamine.html#Phenylpropanolamine

And this one is another go-to site, IMO:

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_phenylpropanolamine.html

That one (Mar Vista) will tell you all the possible side effects and how to look for them. It will give you the language for questions to call the vet with, too.

 

[Alicia Mertz]

Connie, has anyone ever told you that YOU ROCK?! =D>

Thank you so much for the information. Those sites are great and just the sort of thing I was hoping (knew) you could provide me with. I will show them to my friend tomorrow, much to her delight, I'm sure.