Yorkie drinks lots, dilute urine. Kidneys not on X-ray. Is it serious?

KG is lucky to have you!! It is wonderful that you have already taken him to your veterinarian for a check up. The urinalysis and bloodwork should have indicated if KG has any kidney failure (high creatinine or BUN or SDMA with a low urine specific gravity). If all of those were normal- it is highly unlikely that he has kidney failure!! Other things that can cause a dog to drink LOTS of water are diabetes (2 kinds) and psychogenic polydipsia (a fancy way of just saying they like to drink water) and a few others. Your vet can work through the blood work to rule many of these out as well as do a water deprivation test (this must be supervised by your vet!) to determine what is the root cause of KG’s behavior. Thank you for using Pet Coach!!

I wouldn't say that Angel's kidneys are negligible. They are still, though small than "average." This could be her normal (not all dogs will have organs of the average size, since a 10 pound dog will have smaller kidneys than a 100 pound dog). Other causes for small kidneys could be a congenital disorder, fibrosing or scarring of the kidneys, significant dehydration, among a few other things. Ultrasound still images can be very hard to interpret since you need to scan through things to be able to get the whole picture. From the still images, either they do not capture the actual kidney, or there is so much damage that they are not a normal appearance anymore. Even though this link ( http://www.ultrasoundpaedia.com/normal-kidney/ ) is for humans, dog kidney images will look very similar. You can see a few different shapes, and the odd shapes seen in the pictures in the link are not seen on your images. Causes for loss of architecture (kidneys that are more or less mushed all together) can include infection, scarring, cancer, etc. Even though she is young, it is possible for Angel to be in kidney failure. Bloodwork and urinalysis would be the tests to show this. If she is in failure, then she would need dialysis to continue with life.

Hello! Yes, it is quite possibly a UTI. Or, she may have bladder stones. It would be a great idea to take her into to see a vet. She may need a urinalysis run, possibly some X-rays, or some antibiotics.

I'm sorry to hear Minnie is having urinary issues. If her bloodwork panel ruled out an underlying medical issue such as diabetes, I would recommend she have further testing done to try to determine the underlying cause for her urination issues. I would want to rule out a bladder stone or a mass in the bladder/urethra as other possible causes, which would be with either an X-ray or an ultrasound. Good luck!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Technically, we have to have a urine concentration to know for sure if the kidneys are affected. Those values (urea and creat) could have been caused by mild dehydration. If so, the kidneys are fine. If the urine is dilute and watery, then yes I am worried more about kidney damage. Talk to your vet about checking the concentration (USG) of the first urine of the morning. Best of luck to you and Max!

I am sorry to hear about Jack. A urinary tract infection would not cause an enlargement of the spleen, heart, or liver. It would not affect the hips or spine either. The dilute urine could be related to the urinary tract infection. I would recommend an ultrasound of the abdomen and the heart to further evaluate these enlarged organs.

I am so sorry to hear about your poor yorkie. First, I want to applaud you for allowing the veterinarian to perform diagnostic testing in the form of x-rays and bloodwork. This is a great first step and can provide them with a baseline in case they need to do further testing in the future. Unfortunately, there are still so many diseases or conditions that a dog can get that will not show up on an x-ray or routine bloodwork. For example, gastrointestinal diseases like inflammatory bowel disease do not show up positive with only x-rays and routine bloodwork. Another example is if your dog is In pain for some reason such as a muscle pull or they hurt their back while jumping on the couch, etc. pain can cause a dog to exhibit all of the clinical signs that your dog is showing such as not eating, not drinking, and not playing at all. And pain cannot be diagnosed in x-rays or bloodwork. The point being that there are so many different diseases and ailments that a yorkie can get that just won’t show up with routine testing and may need specialized further testing modalities. My advice is the following: if he is not showing signs of improvement within 24 hours, please take him back to the veterinarian to do further testing or even start IV fluid’s and other supportive treatments. If he is getting better, I would still call the veterinarian and give them an update on the condition to see if they want to recommend anything else you can do to help him at home. I hope this helps.