Why is my old dog losing weight, drinking more, and ribs are showing?

She is getting to be consider a senior pet. Due to that they can develop diabetes or kidney disease or cancer or some other metabolic disease causing the weight loss. A vet is the best option to run blood work to check for these disease as some are more manageable than others. If she goes untreated, you may notice the weight loss continue and even vomiting or diarrhea ensue due to advanced disease. On average it is more economic to treat and manage a disease when they are healthy, so the sooner the better you can find a way to take Roxy in the better. Different clinics might accept different forms of payment, so it may be worth checking around

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.

two disease come to mind: diabetes and kidney disease. Polydipsia and Polyuria (drinking and urinating excessively) and weight loss are typical for these two diseases. It is easy to diagnose with a blood test. Please take Jasmine to your vet for a blood test. Once diabetes is diagnosed, your vet can explain the therapy (most likely insulin injections, which are easily done and nothing to be feared), and diet. If kidney disease is diagnosed, she will have to take some medications and go on a special renal diet and likely regularly get fluids injected under the skin. Please take her to the vet soon .

This sounds very frustrating both for you and Missy! I'm glad to hear that you have already taken her to the vet to rule out some of the more common causes of excessive drinking and urination. Age isn't a disease and drinking excessively is not normal at any age. If she has not yet had a urinalysis performed, this could rule out a urinary tract infection and also provide additional information regarding kidney function. In some cases, dogs can experience psychogenic increases in their drinking which do not have a direct medical cause. However, these cases are not terribly common and all other conditions causing excessive drinking must be ruled out to reach this diagnosis. At this point, I would discuss a urinalysis and abdominal ultrasound (looking for changes in the adrenal gland, liver and kidneys in particular) with Missy's vet.

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. : )

Hi and thanks for posting. I am sorry to hear Sara is not feeling well. There are a lot of causes for drinking more water, vomiting, and weight loss. Organ issues such as kidney, liver, or pancreas diseases can be cause as well as endocrine illness such as diabetes, gastrointestinal tumors as well as certain cancers can all be possibilities among others. Sara will need a hands on exam with her veterinarian as soon as possible in order to help determine the cause. Your veterinarian may recommend blood work and/or x-rays or other diagnostic testing to aide in a diagnosis. Treatment will depend on the cause. I hope this helps!

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.