My dog is weak, drinking, peeing in sleep, and losing weight. Why?

These signs are usually related either to urinary tract infection, or to kidney problem (failure) or to urinary incontinence. A blood test and urine analysis can rule out kidney failure and urinary tract infection. Urinary incontinence usually derived from a weak urinary sphincter (quite common in old age females). A clinical examination at your local veterinarian is essential to confirm these clinical suspicions and treat appropriately. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. Please find the time to give us a feedback about the consultation as that will be used to improve our service.

Drinking a lot of water and losing weight is very concerning and indicates an underlying medical condition. There are many possibilities: * cancer * Cushing's disease * Diabetes * kidney disease * etc.... The weakness and spasms in the back legs is probably due to arthritis, however, she could be just weak from whatever underlying disease is going on. The chewing and licking of the paws could be due to her being generally uncomfortable (displacement behavior), allergies, bacterial infection of the skin, etc. She really needs an examination by your veterinarian to get to the bottom of what is going on.

I can understand your concern here. Weight loss and increased drinking can indicate an underlying endocrine disorder such as Cushings disease, Diabetes, or even just indicate an infection. I would not worry just yet. Let the vet do some bloodwork on Molly to check her overall health and then we can go from there. I hope that things turn out favorable for your pet Molly moving forward. Best of luck and take care. : )

She may have an underlying disease such arthritis or spondylosis in her hips or back causing her to not be very strong in the rear legs. These may also be signs of an infected uterus since she is not spayed. At her age, kidney disease and diabetes can occur and often start with drinking more and urinating more. Your vet can do a blood panel to check and an x ray to see what medications are best to keep her comfortable more.

I would recommend having your dog seen as soon as possible if her symptoms are not improving tomorrow, even if this means taking her in to another vet or an emergency vet. Diseases we worry about with these symptoms include Cushings Disease (where the adrenal glands produce too much steroids), diabetes, kidney disease and liver disease. Some of these conditions can worsen quickly and become life threatening so having her examined and having bloodwork and urinalysis done as soon as possible to determine the underlying cause is the safest way to proceed.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Loss of appetite and weight loss can be observed with many conditions such as gastroenteritis, dietary indiscretion, kidney disease, pancreatitis, among many other possibilities. He may be so weak that that is why it seems like he is urinating and defecating in his bed and laying on it. I recommend that you have Rooney evaluated by your veterinarian for further assessment and treatment. They would be able to check for these possibilities and others depending on the findings on exam. Treatment would be based on findings. He may have something that he can get over and be fine after. Good luck and have a great day! Hoping for a speedy recovery! 

Poor Kobe! From your description, I would be very concerned that he has a medical problem causing him to drink and urinate more than normal. In an 11-year-old dog, the most common causes of this problem along with the weight loss you have noticed would be diabetes or Cushing's disease, but liver or kidney problems would also be possible. There is nothing you can do to fix the problem until you get a definite diagnosis, so I would recommend taking Kobe to the vet as soon as you are able to. He/she can do some blood work and a urinalysis to help diagnose the problem, and will get him started on appropriate medication to treat it depending on what is found. In the meantime, please make sure that Kobe has free access to water at all times, even if he is having accidents in the house. Dogs with these problems can very easily become dehydrated without access to water, as you have noticed, so it isn't safe to restrict their water intake.