Schedule For Drinking Water And Peeing

[Guest oldNELLIE]

Hello everyone!

 

So, I have reached a point of frustration with Nellie, and (to be fair) I have not not made any changes at this point because I am not sure exactly how to address it. Nellie is having to go out to pee at between 2 and 3 in the morning every night now. It used to be a once and a while thing but it has become constant and of course it is the dead of winter now at has been below zero temps. We don't have a yard so I have to leash her up and take her out.

 

I understand what the problem is, but like I said I am not sure how to address it. Here is her current schedule.

 

Early am breakfast

before work walk

pee break

after work walk (5:30pm)

Dinner #1

pee

Dinner #2 (8pm)

out to pee (10-11pm)

 

The problem lies in when she is drinking her water. She drinks hardly anything during the day or with her 1st dinner. After her second dinner she drains her dish. The whole thing. And it really seems like this is the only time she is drinking. It has also become worse with the heat on in our house as it is very dry. So it makes sense that she would have to pee in the night if she is downing her water at 8:30pm. The pee she takes in the middle of the night is the largest pee she take all day and she has to go bad when she wakes me up.

 

We have tried putting less in her dish. She gets frantic and will lap at the empty dish until we put a bit more in it. I don't want to restrict it at this time and toucher her by leaving her thirsty, but how do I break this cycle otherwise? Could I sneak some water into her food and then take her water dish away right after her 2nd dinner?

 

Thanks for your thoughts!

[JAJ2010]

Why does she have 2 dinners? My girls want to pack up and come live at your house! I would try feeding maybe breakfast and a dinner then restrict her water after 7pm. Humidifiers for the dry house. We have 3 running all the time in our Apt. Once you break her guzzling habit she shouldn't go back to guzzling and peeing at night.

 

ETA I see you do feed breakfast... maybe add more food and water to the 2 meals and don't feed a 3rd?

Edited January 14, 2010 by jgeiger2006

[Guest Lovemyhound]

I second that.. why 2 dinners?

[Guest oldNELLIE]

Nellie has some "issues" surrounding food...namely she is always frantic for it. I understand that most dogs love their food, but with Nellie it goes a bit deeper Feeding her her 3 cups of food spread out over the day keeps her from being hungry and, honestly keeps us from having to use something like an anti-anxiety medicine. We came up with this system with our vet and it does keep her from reaching a point of panic.

[silverfish]

If she also has an 'issue' with restraining herself on food, I'd be thinking there might be a medical reason for both. Have you had a full blood panel done lately? How old is she?

 

I don't ever restrict my dogs' drinking fresh clean water. It's a basic requirement of life, and as you say, you don't want to torture her.

 

If you think the dry air in the apartment is contributing to the problem, then it might be a place to start. Think about how to make the air less dry, but ... unless she's panting all day she shouldn't get too dehydrated just from that. If she IS panting all day, then you need to wonder why. Is she stressed? Is she sick? Is she in pain? Some dogs whose stomachs hurt will drink and drink, and this may possibly be true for eating too. For instance, I have acid reflux and if I don't eat something on a regular basis, boy do I suffer. Is she on any medications which make her thirsty?

 

If you get her checked out thoroughly and the vet is convinced it's not medical - and you trust him enough not to want a second opinion on that - then it's probably either behavioural (which is usually linked to anxiety) or a problem of time management, as you thought it might be. I just wouldn't jump to that conclusion without making sure you've absolutely ruled out anything medical.

 

She has breakfast, so if you want to try to rearrange her drinking habits, the first thing I'd do is add water to her breakfast. I'd also consider switching to a wet food in the evening if you use kibble, because some will make dogs drink a lot - or sometimes just changing the kibble will help.

 

We had a pee-at-inappropriate-times problem with Jim. It was anxiety in his case and the DAP plug in fixed him within a week!

[silverfish]

I just looked up your other topics and see that Nellie is indeed an old girl. What a sweet face she has!

 

Just wanted to add that kidney disease can cause them to drink a lot, so can urinary infections - old gals are more prone to these, too. And diabetes insipidus not only causes them to drain their bowls, but pee a lot too. Then there's Cushings, Addisons, etc. Well worth getting a full geriatric work-up, IMHO. Good luck!

[JAJ2010]

ok I'm going to suggest something way out in left field.... You can laugh and shrug it off if you wish. How about an animal communicator? Rainy's excessive drinking stopped instantly right after I hung up the phone. That turned my skeptic self into a believer. PM me of you want to know who I used.

[Guest LindsaySF]

I would NOT restrict her water. As you have seen, it tends to make the dog frantic for water and they actually end up drinking more than they need. It's not pretty.

 

Does she have a water dish down during the day? Many dogs wait until their owners get home to drink most of their water. It's pretty common because when you are home is when they are the most active. And most dogs take a big drink right after they eat.

 

I can understand feeding her twice, but the late feeding might be encouraging her to drink a lot of water afterwards. If you keep that dinner I would make it earlier than 8 pm, and add some water to her kibble (all meals) so she drinks it then and not late in the day.

 

Or instead of dinner #2 you can give her a Kong or toy with kibble inside when you leave for work (and after the midday pee break). That way she has some snacks during the day and won't be as frantic for food later in the evening. You can also try giving her some ice cubes with those treats, she will get the satisfaction of chewing them up but also be hydrated at the same time.

 

Good luck!

[Guest oldNELLIE]

If she also has an 'issue' with restraining herself on food, I'd be thinking there might be a medical reason for both. Have you had a full blood panel done lately? How old is she?

 

I don't ever restrict my dogs' drinking fresh clean water. It's a basic requirement of life, and as you say, you don't want to torture her.

 

If you think the dry air in the apartment is contributing to the problem, then it might be a place to start. Think about how to make the air less dry, but ... unless she's panting all day she shouldn't get too dehydrated just from that. If she IS panting all day, then you need to wonder why. Is she stressed? Is she sick? Is she in pain? Some dogs whose stomachs hurt will drink and drink, and this may possibly be true for eating too. For instance, I have acid reflux and if I don't eat something on a regular basis, boy do I suffer. Is she on any medications which make her thirsty?

 

If you get her checked out thoroughly and the vet is convinced it's not medical - and you trust him enough not to want a second opinion on that - then it's probably either behavioral (which is usually linked to anxiety) or a problem of time management, as you thought it might be. I just wouldn't jump to that conclusion without making sure you've absolutely ruled out anything medical.

 

She has breakfast, so if you want to try to rearrange her drinking habits, the first thing I'd do is add water to her breakfast. I'd also consider switching to a wet food in the evening if you use kibble, because some will make dogs drink a lot - or sometimes just changing the kibble will help.

 

We had a pee-at-inappropriate-times problem with Jim. It was anxiety in his case and the DAP plug in fixed him within a week!

 

 

I just looked up your other topics and see that Nellie is indeed an old girl. What a sweet face she has!

 

Just wanted to add that kidney disease can cause them to drink a lot, so can urinary infections - old gals are more prone to these, too. And diabetes insipidus not only causes them to drain their bowls, but pee a lot too. Then there's Cushings, Addisons, etc. Well worth getting a full geriatric work-up, IMHO. Good luck!

 

Thank you for your thorough response! She will be 8 this spring. She does have a sweet face Here are my thoughts...Last June Nellie has a FULL work up because of an excessive water drinking episode. Way worse than this. She would drain dish after dish after dish. We tested for all of what you listed above. Negative on all counts, she had a slightly hypo-thyroid reading that the water drinking was attributed too. We switched foods and the excessive drinking stopped. I now think the HT diagnosis was irrelevant and it was the food that was making her thirsty.

 

Although she does struggle with some anxiety it is truly food related and she does not seem like what I would think of as an anxious dog. No panting, pacing, chewing. As far as I can tell she goes to sleep on the couch when we leave and doesn't move all day

 

We have used DAP and other herbal remedies in the past with no luck.

I think I will start putting some water in her other meals like you have suggested. Perhaps she will not be so thirsty be the end of the day.

 

ok I'm going to suggest something way out in left field.... You can laugh and shrug it off if you wish. How about an animal communicator? Rainy's excessive drinking stopped instantly right after I hung up the phone. That turned my skeptic self into a believer. PM me of you want to know who I used.

 

I would never laugh or shrug off! I do see the value in this, but in this case I really think it is a time management problem...Although it would be nice to know what was going through her head about her food/dinner issues (that is a WHOLE different topic!)

[JAJ2010]

I would never laugh or shrug off! I do see the value in this, but in this case I really think it is a time management problem...Although it would be nice to know what was going through her head about her food/dinner issues (that is a WHOLE different topic!)

 

Our girl used to drain the water dish immediately after we got home from work and once the communicator explained to her that it wouldn't disappear she stopped instantly. It was a behavior that continued for months so it was a pretty good pattern to just vanish suddenly.... LOL It couldn't hurt your girl just to try it. Just view it as $60 of money allotted towards entertainment. If nothing else it will be interesting and fun.

[Guest oldNELLIE]

I would NOT restrict her water. As you have seen, it tends to make the dog frantic for water and they actually end up drinking more than they need. It's not pretty.

 

Does she have a water dish down during the day? Many dogs wait until their owners get home to drink most of their water. It's pretty common because when you are home is when they are the most active. And most dogs take a big drink right after they eat.

 

I can understand feeding her twice, but the late feeding might be encouraging her to drink a lot of water afterwards. If you keep that dinner I would make it earlier than 8 pm, and add some water to her kibble (all meals) so she drinks it then and not late in the day.

 

Or instead of dinner #2 you can give her a Kong or toy with kibble inside when you leave for work (and after the midday pee break). That way she has some snacks during the day and won't be as frantic for food later in the evening. You can also try giving her some ice cubes with those treats, she will get the satisfaction of chewing them up but also be hydrated at the same time.

 

Good luck!

 

We were writing at the same time!

The problem with feeding her earlier in the night is that she is then hungry earlier in the morning. I swear she counts the hours between meals. It is also not so much how much she eats but the act of eating the satisfies her. She is pretty uninterested in Kongs and wouldn't take one as a meal substitute (sometimes I feel like I am on a talk show when I talk about her relationship with food ) She does love ice cubes and munches on them as treats. It is often what we give her (if there are no veggie scraps laying around...no need for fancy treat is our house!)

[Guest mcsheltie]

I would drown her morning and first dinner in water. If she is that food crazy she will drink a lot of water at each meal to get to the kibble. It also has the benefit of taking longer to eat too. I would put some, but not so much in the second dinner.

 

What are you feeding her?

[Guest oldNELLIE]

She is fed Kirkland Chicken. It seems to agree with her. I think adding water to her other meals is a perfect answer to try! That is why I needed to "talk it out". Didn't even occur to me!

[Guest mcsheltie]

She is fed Kirkland Chicken. It seems to agree with her. I think adding water to her other meals is a perfect answer to try! That is why I needed to "talk it out". Didn't even occur to me!

It should do the trick. I'd give her a bowl full with her kibble floating it in. Later start decreasing the amount slowly. Usually this is just a habit that you can break.

[Burpdog]

I haven't read all the replies. Do NOT restrict water.

 

Many of the older ones need to go out more often. One of the reasons I still sleep on the couch....

 

You can also try soaking it if she doesn't like the added water. That way she is getting some water in the kibble and she doesn't know it

 

Have you done a urinalysis?

[GeorgeofNE]

This sounds medical to me too--

 

However, fi this is a senior, you REALLY don't want to restrict water.

 

I know it's frustrating--I'd discuss it with the vet and consider Hill's K/D. It helped my senior dog a LOT. He was having a similar issue--random kidney related issue--and because of his age, we opted to try simple things first, and whatever the deal is with the K/D, it helped!

[Guest LindsaySF]

The problem with feeding her earlier in the night is that she is then hungry earlier in the morning. I swear she counts the hours between meals. It is also not so much how much she eats but the act of eating the satisfies her.

Sophie is hungry all the time because of her medication. She also drinks a lot of water. I combat this by feeding her some kibble pieces frequently, and lots of ice cubes and chew bones. Can you give Nellie a handful of kibble just before bed? It might be enough to make her sleep until breakfast, but not so much that she tanks up on water.

 

 

She is pretty uninterested in Kongs and wouldn't take one as a meal substitute

I bought a non-Kong brand Kong at the pet store that has a smaller hole, so the kibble comes out slower. Sophie pushes it around and eats the kibble pieces as they come out. This also helps with her separation anxiety. This is the one I bought (Nylabone Rhino Cone). I also have this one (Busy Buddy Twist 'n Treat). Both have been very helpful for us.

 

 

 

 

~Lindsay~