Incurin^® Questions and Answers

Incurin is indicated for the treatment of incontinence due to urinary sphincter mechanism incompetence (USMI) in ovariohysterectomised bitches.

Urinary incontinence can also be caused by several disorders that do not involve USMI including neurological disorders. It is important to ensure that we are dealing with incontinence due to USMI and not any other disorder prior to starting Incurin treatment.

Polyuria-polydipsia conditions can lead to some owners perceiving ‘incontinence’ because they are seeing the animal having ‘accidents’ in the house because of the production of large volumes of urine, or because their animal is pollakiuric (and so has an increased urge to urinate rather than a loss of voluntary control of urination). Careful clinical history-taking can prove critical in these cases.

Evaluation for the presence of underlying disorders should be of paramount importance in the animal presenting with PUPD and perceived ‘incontinence’. In particular, in the case of PUPD due to diabetes mellitus, failure to diagnose and treat appropriately the PUPD-causing disorder could have severe consequences for the animal e.g. ketoacidosis. Other disorders resulting in PUPD of consideration include renal disease, Cushing’s, UTIs, hypothyroidism. For these, estriol treatment would not be indicated or effective.

Response to Incurin can be variable and for some dogs full onset of effect can be slower and may only be noted after 4-6 weeks¹.

Thus, although dose changes can be made safely prior to this, 4-6 weeks is therefore the minimum trial period recommended to assess initial response to Incurin in dogs slow to show signs of improvement of USMI.

From trial work, there was no demonstration of accumulation of estriol over time and therefore once the medication is stopped, the therapeutic effect of Incurin may cease within 24 hours².