Urinary incontinence in bitches after ovariohysterectomy

• Autor(a) principal: Oliveira, Inês Serra Fé Acabado
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/17365
• topic: Bitches; Hormonal deficiency; Ovariohysterectomy; Urinary incontinence; Urethral sphincter mechanism incompetence; Cadelas; Deficiência hormonal; Incontinência urinária; Mecanismo de incompetência do esfíncter uretral; Ovariohisterectomia

Urinary incontinence (UI) can be defined as the lack of voluntary control over the flow of urine during the storage phase, resulting on leakage of urine when there is no intention to urinate. This urological disorder seems to affect particularly bitches, and among those, the neutered bitches appear at an increased risk. Several aetiologies have been proposed to explain the UI in ovariohysterectomized bitches, such as urethral sphincter mechanism incompetence, decreased urethral tone, caudal bladder position, shorter urethra, hormonal deficiency, timing of neutering relative to onset of puberty, docking and even obesity, however the exact mechanism of pathogenesis is still unknown. Considering that the etiology of UI among ovariohysterectomized bitches remain controversial, and as it is prevalent in 5 to 20% of neutered bitches, it was performed a retrospective study that involved 45 neutered bitches with UI, in order to investigate the contribution of age, weight, breed, environment, type of fur, previous pregnancies, among others, to the occurrence of UI. For that purpose a questionnaire was made, directed to the owners of female incontinent dogs after spay, to evaluate the contribution of the mentioned factors in to the urinary incontinence. In this study, 28% (n=13) of the involved bitches was sterilized between 6 months an 1 year old, 37% (n=17) weight between 10 and 20kg at the time of ovariohysterectomy, 42% (n=19) suffers a weight gain more than 3kg since ovariohysterectomy, 44% (n= 20) showed signs of UI until 3 years old, 46% (n=21) weight between 20 and 30kg at the time of UI and 71% (n=32) lasted two years until UI appeared. A positive statistics correlation was found between age at UI with previous pregnancies and UI state with UI occurrence. A positive correlation was also found between urinary incontinence gravity and UI time of day (p<0.05), as well as UI gravity and UI frequency (p<0.01). The results did not show a correlation between ovariohysterectomy weight and UI age (p=0.15), UI weight and UI age (p=0.47), weight gain since ovariohysterectomy and age at UI (p=0.62). There are some factors that can influence the UI after spay, but further studies are need, since this issue still keeps quite controversial among the various authors.