Excessive Drinking And Urination

[LakeshoreGreys]

We adopted our newest boy in early June, and he is 8 years old. Never had an accident in the house, even when he first joined our family. There were times he would do his last potty for the night at 7p and be fine until 6a (though typically he's up with DH at 4a)

 

About a month ago, we noticed his bed was wet in the morning. Took him into the vet and they said there *could* be a touch of bladder infection and put him on an antibiotic (cephlalexin) for two weeks. We noticed that we had been filling the water bowl a little more than usual, but not a drastic amount...and with the others using the bowl as well, we weren't sure he was the culprit.

 

We since make an effort to get him out for his last potty for the night a little later, between 9 & 10. Between that and the meds, he was dry for about 2 weeks.

 

This week, we're back to wet beds and he is drinking A LOT. Today, for example, I filled the water bowl four times. It holds a quart of water, and was bone dry between fillings. He is doing the majority of the drinking - I've seen him tank up. He's not actively peeing; it seems like it leaks out when he sleeps - we don't see it anywhere else in the house besides his bed.

 

We have a vet appointment tomorrow for this and his eye (one of his eyes is a bit squinty). Just thought I'd toss this out there to see if anyone has any ideas.

 

 

[MaryJane]

Sorry to hear that you are having problems .... I suggest bringing in a urine that is first morning speciman in sterile container for a urinalysis and culture. Sounds like a UTI but, they might also draw blood to check other values.

 

Good Luck

[galgrey]

Sorry to hear that you are having problems .... I suggest bringing in a urine that is first morning speciman in sterile container for a urinalysis and culture. Sounds like a UTI but, they might also draw blood to check other values.

 

Good Luck

[Guest OPointyDog]

Another option is Cushing's Disease, which sometimes manifests itself as excessive drinking and urination. Dogs also often are very hungry and may have a dull coat. Depending on the form (adrenal vs. pituitary) it can be managed.

[Hubcitypam]

Two guesses would be diabetes or Cushings.

[gryhndsr4us]

Hope Comanche just has a UTI. Let us know what it turns out to be.

[greyhead]

We had to have a urine culture to get to the bottom of Shane's repeated problems along these lines. The vet had "looked" at the urine in the office and didn't detect any of the usual markers for infection. Nonetheless, weeks later we demanded a culture (and sensitivity), and it turned out to be E. coli. So I always advise urine culture when there's any question. Also, that way the antibiotic can be customized to the germ so it clears up sooner instead of later.

[Wonder]

Make sure to do blood work

[LakeshoreGreys]

No infections were found. They ran a tick panel (negative), cbc (nothing unusual), urine culture (negative), urinalysis. Urinalysis came back with high protein value again, so they sent out for a protein/creatinine ratio. I guess his protein was .9 and it should be .2.

 

If I understood her correctly (why do the vets always talk so fast!), she wants to try an ace inhibitor for 2 weeks. I guess that will decrease the blood flow to the kidneys and <I didn't understand this part but DH said he thought she said it would give them more time to process the urine>. Then we recheck in 2 weeks and hopefully the protein number is lower.

 

She said it's not kidney failure but early kidney insufficiency. Not sure what the difference is there, but we'll try the test and once we see the results I will ask her to summarize for us.

[Sambuca]

We recently had this issue. I figured out it was caused by a new wet food. When he stopped getting that food, he got better. Thankfully I figured it out quickly and stopped the food. Has he gotten any new foods, meds or treats recently? I have a friend whose grey had a similar issue on a supplement. Once the supplement stopped, so did the excessive peeing and drinking.

[LakeshoreGreys]

Only new thing I can think of is we typically give the Kirkland dry dog biscuits but we ran out, so I had to substitute Milk Bones (just the plain, uncolored ones) until we got back to Costco. Thanks for sharing that thought, Sambuca!

[Sambuca]

Only new thing I can think of is we typically give the Kirkland dry dog biscuits but we ran out, so I had to substitute Milk Bones (just the plain, uncolored ones) until we got back to Costco. Thanks for sharing that thought, Sambuca!

It could be the treats. I only give my dogs 1-2 tablespoons a day and that's all it took to cause problems.

[Batmom]

A different treat wouldn't cause protein in the urine. Only damaged kidneys or infection do that. Are you 100% sure the urine was cultured? Usually takes a couple days for a culture result to come back.

 

Best luck!

[LakeshoreGreys]

A different treat wouldn't cause protein in the urine. Only damaged kidneys or infection do that. Are you 100% sure the urine was cultured? Usually takes a couple days for a culture result to come back.

 

Best luck!

 

Hey Jey, yeah, they sent it out last Thursday and called Monday with the results. She even commented that some of the testing might be done Friday, but since the culture takes a while, she'd wait until all of it was in before she called.

[Batmom]

Well, poop . Hopefully the meds will help him.

[seeh2o]

My beloved girl, Sheila, displayed the exact symptoms just before she went blind from SARDs (sudden acquired retinal degeneration syndrome). Prior to losing their sight, many dogs will display Cushinoid symptoms, then, after they lose their eyesight they gradually go back to normal, but are blind. You may want to ask your vet about it, I think one of the hallmarks of SARDs is elevated hormone levels. Here is a link that gives some more information.

Edited October 3, 2013 by seeh2o

[Guest BlueCrab]

Our experience with excessive urination and drinking was due to congestive heart failure. Your dog seems a bit young for that, so that's probably not it (Leyland was 10 or 11 when he was diagnosed). But just additional information FYI.

 

We put Leyland on a bunch of heart meds (enalapril, pemobendin, can't even remember what else, but it's 5 meds total, 2x daily) to manage the CHF and the peeing in the house miraculously cleared up. Obviously when we got the heart function under control, the fluids were managed better as well.

 

Good luck figuring out what's going on.

[cleptogrey]

have you monitored exactly how much he is drinking? there is a formula that relates to bodyweight. when i monitored felix's(nearly 5yrs at the time) consumption when we he displayed very similar symptoms. (i didn't post this earlier since i was hoping that you would find a uti or something simple).

from what i remember it was

a dip stick test first& specific gravity

urine analysis

measure water intake

blood workup- one test at a time

 

it was really difficult trying to see what his output was, between running and me being comatose in the middle of the night and not catching his urine i was inaccurate. but his consumption over was 2 xs the norm. at one point we thought possibly lyme- antibiotics did not make a difference. i brought in the "care of the racing & retired greyhound" and shared it w/ my vet. i thought the signs pointed to diabetes incipidus. he had one other dog w/ it in his 40+ years of practice.but my vet did look at #s, charts and other things i didn't understand and loved the book.he decided to treat him for d.i. since the treatment would have no ill affect if it wasn't successful or necessary. after one shot of vasopressin tannate- he was NORMAL- that was within an hour!. it was as if a switch was turned off or on! our plan was to give him 1/2 a shot and see how he did. no go- called and i administered the other 1/2 which i took home w/me.

 

well, low and behold he's been fine except for urinary incontience which briefly appeared both before and 9 months after his treatment. go, know?? i am still confused, maybe it was a toxic chewie- a new bunch, maybe change of food- it started after kirkland's domain was tried, (those were thoughts that a friend who is a vet mentioned). what ever, he's as normal as he can be- he's a wierdo!

[Guest D_MansMommy]

it could be many things but i'll share my experience. TC had the same symptoms. he has chronic kidney failure. it is not as horrible as it sounds. the vet of course suggested prescription food but um i passed on that. i did my research (with help from my grey peeps ) and found a food with the right amount of protein and phosphorus. he is thriving now. no urgency to pee and no excessive drinking.