Very Odd Symptoms........any Ideas?

[Guest DoofBert]

A friend, not of GT has 5 year old new retiree....hound has excessive thirst....he's had a variety of tests:

 

fecal.. no signs of anything.

 

no diabetes

 

He's eating about 2X normal portions... and he's gained about 1.5 pounds in the past week.

 

There have been blood tests...his vet, who has expereince with GH, reports his urine is not concentrating...implying the water just passes through his system. And he is still thirsty.

 

He does have gum infection and is on antibiotics.

 

Any resources or ideas to consider???

 

 

[Guest patti909]

my standard poodle go tlike that and it was her kidneys.

[ZoomDoggy]

How's his kidney function on the bloodwork?

[Burpdog]

An undiagnosed uti, stomach hurts. Of course he is not concentrating urine--he's drinking tons

 

Did she switch dog foods?

[DaisyDoodle]

Has Cushing's been considered? I don't have experience with it, but my vet recently thought my mix, Lucky, might have it...luckily she didn't. But, the drinking and eating sound like familiar symptoms.

Cushing's Link

 

FWIW,

DD

 

 

[Guest spider9174]

my boy does this too. I've actually had him tested for cushings, it was negative.

 

we've cultured urine and I've had it tested a number of times in the last year.

 

He hada few bouts of big D and this seemed to have an affect on how much he was drinking, wanted more and when he stabilized he still wanted more.

 

His bloodwork shows bun/creatinine levels are on the high end for greys, but are stable--haven't changed since we got him.

 

So after all this testing, my vet said he has psychogenic polydipsia. It's actually common in greys and kind of a form of anxiety or addiction to water. They drink and don't need to. They don't concentrate their urine.

 

I've countered this by not putting large amount of water out. I don't restrict how much he drinks, I just restrict how much is there at any given time. This has seemed to help his drinking problem.

[Burpdog]

I wonder how many of these greys that are diagnosed with DI really have h pylori and are drinking because their stomach hurts? I know Ivey's drinking cut in half when I started her on zantac and carafate. I regret not having her scoped.

[seeh2o]

SARDS, sudden acquired retinal degeneration syndrome, it often has the same symptoms as Cushings, excessive thirst, ravenous appetite, weight gain, wetting in the house in a previously housebroken dog, lethargy. Then, the dog quickly (sometimes from one hour to the next) loses their eyesight. After that, the Cushings symptoms disappear. For Sheila it took about a year for the symptoms to completely dissipate, though the blindness is permanent.

[Guest DoofBert]

HMM.....keep the ideas coming... I'll forward to the vet.

 

[Guest TuxsMom]

i had a cat do this and it turned out to be a bad reaction to an antibiotic. has that been considered? in cats, there are certain anitbiotics that cause increased thirst, appetite, and weight gain.

 

dont' know about dogs, but also don't want to overlook the obvious! it could be that simple?

[Guest DoofBert]

Food was switched when he came up from track into foster home... Then changed again from foster home into permanent home. I know the change to new kibble in permanent home was done gradually.

 

 

[Trudy]

Ryan drinks GALLONS of water a day. Having a pool outside for them isn't an option as he'd drink it all. But he's still able to concentrate his urine.

 

Have any kidney values been checked?

Did this start before or after the abt's?

Any other symptoms besides the excessive drinking?

The 2x food is based on what - how new to the house is he?

 

 

Left to his own devices, Ryan would drink a pool full of water and eat a bag of kibble a day.

[Guest spider9174]

Burpdog, what's the dose of zantac you give?

[NevadasMom]

Consider Cushings..........

[GeorgeofNE]

Sounds like Cushings to me--or possibly similar to my non-Grey who had a kidney issue that we never really figured out--he couldn't concentrate his urine well?

[scullysmum]

my boy does this too. I've actually had him tested for cushings, it was negative.

 

we've cultured urine and I've had it tested a number of times in the last year.

 

He hada few bouts of big D and this seemed to have an affect on how much he was drinking, wanted more and when he stabilized he still wanted more.

 

His bloodwork shows bun/creatinine levels are on the high end for greys, but are stable--haven't changed since we got him.

 

So after all this testing, my vet said he has psychogenic polydipsia. It's actually common in greys and kind of a form of anxiety or addiction to water. They drink and don't need to. They don't concentrate their urine.

 

I've countered this by not putting large amount of water out. I don't restrict how much he drinks, I just restrict how much is there at any given time. This has seemed to help his drinking problem.

My bridgekid Scully had this once at about six years old....believed to be caused by the stress of us recently moving house....he recovered after about a week. The vet never really gave a diagnosis...but Psychogenic polydipsia sounds as good as any to me....one thing that the vet recommended was giving him a vitamin C supplement at quite a high dosage for a while (1000mg per day) as this helps to concentrate the urine by making it more acidic (apparently)

[Guest MZH]

Dogs may test negative for the "standand" Cushings but positive for Atypical Cushings, which is a hormonal imbalance. The only place that runs the test for that is the U of Tennessee, AFAIK. Our Cullen had that. He drank like a fish.

 

Treatment in his case was oral melatonin and supplements to reduce his elevated estradiol levels.

 

Marcia in SC

[Burpdog]

Did he have this problem in the first homes? Which kibble is he on now?

 

re zantac: 150mg x 2 or 300mg at bedtime. Carafate, 1 gram a few times a day.

[SAVED2]

Stress from the move , give him a few weeks.

[Guest RooRoo]

Ruling out Cushings popped into my head too...

 

Good luck to this pup

[Guest DoofBert]

Thanks for all the suggestions.... he was moved around a lot in the past few months.... from his track to a foster in FL, then road trip to PA to another foster home..... then to his forever family.

 

I don't have much more info yet....hound is doing ok for the past few day since my original post. Vet said the tests for DI are on her list.... but she wants to rule out other things first.

 

 

[Guest lauri]

Funny...Just had this conversation on Friday!

 

My client has an Aussie. About three I guess. She kept pittling in her bed whie sleeping and they noticed her drinking LOTS of water. Tests show a lack of some horomone or chemical in the system that 'tells' the pup that she's had enough to drink, so she keeps drinking. Diabetes Insipidus. NOT like the other two diabetes - mellitus 1&2.

 

I looked it up:

http://www.vetinfo.com/dencyclopedia/dedibetinsp.html

 

She just takes a pill and she's fine!

[Batmom]

Did they get a first-of-the-morning urine sample after restricting (i.e., not allowing any access to) water overnight? If he's drinking a lot most of the day, that's the only way to tell if he *can* concentrate his urine, and that's an important thing to know.