panic attacks in dogs

Question
Hi, My sister lives in Seattle and is so worried about her dog. The dog is a mixed breed, spayed female yellow terrier mix, about 50 lbs, very fit and healthy, 9 yrs old. She is leash aggressive to other dogs and a little high strung. She is cat crazy, but won't kill them. She is very scared of loud noises including thunder, workers banging on the roof of their condo, and especially firecrackers! Has always had minor panic attacks w/ loud noises where she will pace, pant not settle down. She has given her tranquilizers before on 4th of July.
This past month she started waking during the night, pacing and urinating on the rug. Never before had this happened. My sister took her outside and there was  a little blood in the urine,she struggled to go pee, tried to go over and over. She took her to the vet and was prescribed a medicine for a bladder infection. The first type didn't really work as she kept having trouble sleeping through the night and trouble going pee. The second one seemed to work and she was better. Then last night, a couple days after finishing a 10 day supply of meds, she woke up again with a panic attack, had to go out to pee, struggled to get anything out, finally did.
My sister is very intune to this dog and has noticed since this first started about a month ago, that Sandy is not herself. She is not into playing and although she goes on walks and is wagging her tail, she is a little listless and just not her old spunky, happy self.
She is wondering if her 'panic attacks' which she always has had over loud noises, could be getting worse and more sensitive, and causing the peeing in the night and the excessive peeing and trouble peeing, or is the trouble peeing causing the panic attacks.?
Any advice on these attacks and how to help her?
She is very soothing, tries not to show her concern, plays calming music, does massages, everything!
Please help!
thank you so much. this is a great service!!!
Denise

Answer
Hi Denise,

Many dogs have extreme reactions to loud noises such as fireworks or thunderstorms. Sometimes, when the response to the sound is particularly bad, the dog needs to be sedated.

It sounds like your sister's dog needs to be examined by a veterinarian, again. The dog may not have been on medication long enough to wipe out the bladder infection, or additional tests may need to be run to rule out other bladder problems, such as bladder stones.

It's also common for older female dogs to experience urinary incontinence, due to weakening muscles or low hormones. Your sister's dog may be able to control her urine most of the time, but lately when she's under the stress caused by loud noises, she's unable to hold her urine as she used to. There may be medication to help this.

Something that might help the dog's stress response is a product called dog appeasing pheromones (or D.A.P) . Appeasing pheromones mimics the pheromone that the mother dog produces to calm and reassure her puppies. Dogs recognize these pheromones throughout their life, as these pheromones appear to have a relaxing effect for both the young and adult dogs. Dog appeasing pheromones are an effective natural way to help a dog cope with new and fearful situations. You can read more about this product here:

http://vetmedicine.about.com/cs/behavior/a/dogbehaviorprob.htm

http://www.barkleyandpaws.com/Reviews/Products/D.A.P.___Dog_Appeasing_Pheromone_...

I hope I've been a help.
Best of luck,

Patti