Insatiable Thirst, Frequent Peeing, Incontinence

[Guest Sapphyre]

Hi there,

 

I'm hoping for any advice you fine folks might be able to impart.

 

My 4.5 year old female spayed greyhound has been behaving really strangely the past 72 hours following a vigorous run. On Saturday morning (11am-1pm) we went to her very first lure coursing meet. She is an ex-racer - retired at 2 years old for performing poorly at the track (came in dead last on 3 of her training races).

 

At the lure coursing meet, she was very animated, very excited, barking and panting and carrying on. She appeared to be having a great time. She ran two courses - each 25 seconds in length and was given plenty of water and shade after runs. I do not believe that she ran any harder or faster than she does at the dog park.

 

After the meet, she was drinking quite a large amount of water. Being that it was a hot day and she ran so quickly, we let her drink as much as she pleased.

 

In the early evening, she was laying on her bed and when she got up after some rest, I noticed that her bed was soaked. It seemed like she peed on her bed. Being that she was really tired and sore after coursing, I just caulked it up to nothing really, but I kept a close eye on her the rest of the evening. Over the course of the evening, she was leaking pee slowly while laying down and sleeping. I put a towel under her back side so as not to disturb her rest.

 

Every night she is crated for sleeping and Saturday evening was not unlike any other night. She loves her crate, runs in there and awaits the cookie she gets before bed. She whined to be let out twice in the night because she was so full of water. I noticed in the morning that her bed felt slightly damp in one place, but nothing major.

 

Over the course of Sunday, she was insatiably thirsty and peed a lot, but this is really abnormal behavior for her. She usually doesn't drink very much on account of her raw diet, and she usually only pees 3-4 times a day (she was going almost every hour at this point). She didn't "leak" pee at all over Sunday, so I believed she was getting better. However, during the night, she whined to be let out and 1am, 3am, and then gave a huge cry at 6am and accidentally wet her bed (she NEVER messes her crate, ever).

 

So, clearly something is wrong. We made a vet appointment for the evening. During the day, we withheld water. (She got a huge drink between 7-9am and then water was taken up between 9am-4pm, and then she was given 2 cups of water between 4pm-7pm.) The vet checked her urine (free catch sample) and completed some blood tests. One was a general blood panel another was to check her lactic acid levels. He also performed a physical exam - checking for soreness, tenderness, swelling muscles, etc. Unfortunately, our vet can find nothing wrong. Blood work, urinalysis and physical exam came back within normal parameters for a greyhound (our vet has greyhound experience). The vet said that if we didn't explain the strange behaviors to him, he wouldn't have even known that there was anything wrong the with dog.

 

So...our vet sent us home and gave us "signs" to look for if she might be in trouble. Told us to not withhold water and recheck in two days.

 

Last night, she did not cry or whine to be let out of her crate to potty, but she completely soaked her bed again with pee. You can tell she's really embarrassed about it.

 

We mentioned to the vet that we thought this could be "racing thirst" or "water diabetes" or "rhabdomyolysis". He didn't seem convinced that our pup was exhibiting signs of any of those conditions. The vet seems to think she has "overflow incontinence" and he hopes that it will resolve soon.

 

In all other respects, she is behaving normally. She's bright, perky, hungry, eating like a champ, poop is fine. The only thing that I can tell is wrong with her is the insatiable drinking, frequent peeing, and the incontinence (like I said, she never messes her crate).

 

Has anyone experienced anything like this before? I am so scared for my girl, Miley. She's my baby and I feel like I'm not doing enough to figure this out! I was shocked that she wasn't hospitalized last night, but... sigh. I guess I should probably trust the vet.

 

Help?

[a_daerr]

Have your vet test for UTI and Cushing's.

[Batmom]

Don't withhold water unless you need to for a test.

 

Did vet check her mouth/teeth/throat area?

 

Was a full urinalysis done or just specific gravity?

 

The test, such as it is, for diabetes insipidus is pretty simple: You give the med and see if it helps. That said, I would wonder at the sudden onset.

 

Hope you can get to the bottom of things for your girl.

[Guest Sapphyre]

I believe it was a full urinalysis. He was able to tell me pH, Concentration, if there were white blood cells, red blood cells, etc. He was saying the next step would be to culture the urine.

 

Yes, we were told not to withhold water. So, we've been keeping her bowl down. However, he wants a morning pee catch done tomorrow morning, so has asked us to withhold water after 8:00pm and catch the sample first thing in the morning.

 

He did check her thoroughly...her mouth, gums, did a full body exam. Palpitated her abdomen, spine, muscles. Everything seems normal to him.

 

I'm so scared. I hope she gets better soon...

[Batmom]

One more: Did he check her blood pressure?

 

Keep us posted, OK? Will keep your girlie firmly in my prayers.

[greyhead]

I'd have the urine cultured, just to see. Our Shane had a months-long UTI that only showed through culture, while the urinalysis was always normal! And he's not the only greyhound on this board to have that happen.

[Guest GreyLaw]

Yes, have her tested for Cushing's. My "Littles" had it, and she was always overheated (panting), drank excessively, frequent urination.

[cleptogrey]

we went thru something very similar w/ felix.tanking up on water and peeing like a racehorse! not making it thru the night or even 2 hrs alone. all of his urine and blood work came back normal. i monitored how much water he was drinking- 3xs the normal amount. there is a formular for that, your vet knows it. i did try to monitor his output, but w/ running and panting(the vapor is considered water output) and missing 2 whizzes i was unable to really get a clear picture. we didn't want to send him to a urioligist(sp) and have a catherter inserted to determine the output. that's a guaranteed uti and $$$$. my vet decided to try a shot of vasopressin tannate used for diabetes incepitius. well, with in an hour he was his old self. the shot lasted one month then we tried 1/2 dosage. i ended up giving him the other 1/2 of the dosage 3 days later. then the next month came around and he was FINE???? from what i have read DI can be stress induced. the care of the racing and retired greyhound has a good amount of info. i ended up lending it to my vet- who loved it!

 

wouldn't the blood test show possible cushings? amazon has the book in paperback, it's well worth the print outs of urine/blood levels and then some. best of luck, it's really frustrating!will keep track of your progress and post.

 

just reread your initial post, forgot to mention that just prior to all of this w/ felix he show signs of incontience. one week of des and he was back to normal, my vet said relaxed sphynicter(sp?) muscle. interesting...let's watch and see!

Edited May 15, 2013 by cleptogrey

[a_daerr]

Very interesting info on DI. Thanks, Andrea.