Dog with incontinence

Hi, so I'm just looking for a bit of advice. I have a collie bitch (we think she's around 9 years old but she's a rescue) that has been to the vets for testing this last couple of weeks and they have told us it's either the dog version IBS, or cancer (most likely cancer). They have put her on some steroids for now while we wait for the specialist referral to go through. We have changed her diet as the vet recommended which is great as she has put 2 pounds on. But now she has started with incontinence, we took her back and the vet said it's probably because of the steroids and drinking more. They checked her again and said she's okay. I'm still worried though because she is leaking when she's just walking around and her urine stinks. They tested her urine the other day and haven't mentioned a water infection or anything like that. Would it be worth asking them to check her urine again? This just doesn't seem normal to me, even with the steroids?

Hello - urine testing is relatively inexpensive and I can see your logic that the least useful outcome of investing in a urine test might be peace of mind, where as the most useful outcome would be that something was found, that would change what happened.  However, an interesting question would be, what are you testing the urine *for?*   It sounds likely that your vet would find dilute urine, but this can already be explained with the steroids.  I hear that you are concerned about the yellowness of the wee, so maybe you would be looking for jaundice - do the bloods that have already been done rule that out?  Is the urine strip accurate for that? Is glucose in the urine (diabetes) a possibility?  Peace of mind isn't really sonething you can buy - in that a clear urine test doesn't guarentee health.   Urine 'infections' (usually actually inflammation) don't usually present as yellow urine, but as repeated very small urinations / aborted attempts to urinate.   In summary then, rather than grasping at things to test, a good thing to ask your vet would be 'what could still be causing this situation?' And 'what are we doing to rule some of these things out?'  At the same time, an increase in water input might be useful.  I hope that that helps.