My senior dog drinks too much water and has accidents. Vet said normal

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'm sorry you're having such a challenge diagnosing what is going on with Dude. An increase in water intake and urination is not commonly associated with allergies of any kind. As you know, the first step in evaluating an increase in water intake and urination is to check a urine sample and blood work. Based on those results, did your vet recommend any additional testing? I would presume that Dude's urine concentration was low That can hide a number of things that can be going on. So, you could consider getting a sterile urine sample to submit to the lab for urine culture and sensitivity to see if a urinary tract infection is hiding in a dilute urine sample. You can have an abdominal ultrasound performed to further evaluate the internal organs in the abdomen to see if that gives you additional information. Or you could also do some addition blood or urine tests for Cushing's disease ( https://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=635 ). Sometimes, I will recommend this testing be done with an internal medicine specialist ( http://find.vetspecialists.com/ ). In the meantime, I would recommend measuring Dude's water intake since that may give them additional information about how much water he is drinking. Good luck! I hope that was helpful and you can figure out what is going on with Dude. Thanks for using PetCoach.

Hello and I applaud you for being such a good owner to Tilly. The clinical signs of peeing a lot and drinking a lot is also called polyuria and polydipsia. One of the diseases that is not picked up on a regular blood work up done in a general veterinary practice is called Cushing’s disease. Cushing’s disease can only be diagnosed with an ACTH stim test or a LDDS test. You may want to ask your veterinarian if these tests were run on your last visit. If not, it may be worthwhile to check for this disease. Sadly, boxers are also quite Portland to getting cancer internally. Cancer anywhere inside of a dog can cause them to drink and pee a lot also. As for the coughing issue, sometimes he can cause this coughing but just to be safe I would have the veterinarian do some chest x-rays, and ECG, etc. to make sure that there is nothing wrong with your dogs thoracic cavity that would cause the coughing. If you do not want to do these tests for the cough, you may ask to have your veterinarian start a 21 to 30 day course of anabiotic‘s just in case it is infectious bronchitis or another upper respiratory disease. The cloudy I would be difficult to give you any kind of opinion on without a picture. Two of the most common conditions for cloudy eyes are cataracts and lenticular degeneration. Please have your veterinarian perform an ophthalmic examination to get some insight on what is causing the cloudiness. I realize that I have giving you a lot of information. The main point that I want to make sure I get across is that blood testing and your analysis will Not pick up all diseases and I urge you to ask your veterinarian to either run more tests or refer you to an internal medicine specialist I hope I have provided you with some helpful information.

I'm not seeing a cause for increased thirst in these results. That seems like a lot of bilirubin, but this part of the test sometimes is not as accurate so it's not necessarily something to be concerned about. She doesn't have a large amount of glucose in her urine, so diabetes would be an unlikely cause of her increased thirst. What I'm not sure about is the specific gravity - this would typically be 4 numbers. I'm wondering if her specific gravity is supposed to be 1.005 or if it is supposed to be 1.050. The first would indicate a very dilute urine in which case you should see your vet to discuss additional testing to determine why she is drinking so much - blood work might be recommended to start. 1.050 would be quite concentrated, and I honestly would not worry about perceived increased thirst if this was her specific gravity. I believe that you get a consultation with some of the Petnostics tests which would be a little more helpful as it is more of a back and forth conversation. You could check your package to see if there are more details.

Drinking a lot more means that he is also urinating a lot more. This is called Polydipsia and polyuria or PU PD. There are various reasons for PU PD and they need to be investigated by a veterinarian, especially in an old dog. Blood work can rule out any of those. 1) diabetes---a urinalysis and blood test will be able to rule it in or out. Diabetes is usually treated with diet and insulin. 2) Cushing's disease: This is an overproduction of cortisone, either signaled by a pituitary tumor in the brain or by a malfunction or tumor of the adrenal glands. Medication can inhibit cortisone production. A potbelly and thinning or haircoat and excessive panting are common signs as well. 3) Kidney disease, treated with diet and supportive treatment 4) A urinary tract infection, urinary crystals or stones: treatment varies according to the cause. 5) diabetes insipidus, usually tested with a water deprivation test and treated with a medication called Minirin. You will need to make an appointment with your vet for an exam and blood tests. I am sure your vet will find the cause of the PU PD.

I'm sorry to hear about these changes for Shadow. Increased water intake and urine output is always concerning, especially in an older dog like Shadow. I would recommend a visit with your veterinarian, for a thorough physical exam and some blood work. A number of diseases/conditions can result in increased water intake and urination including diabetes, cushings disease, kidney failure and even a severe urinary tract infection. Your vet can run some bloodwork and may look at a urine sample to help determine the nature of Shadow's condition, and then they can discuss treatments and options.

I recommend a geriatric blood panel. It's for senior dogs to check for a range of illnesses. I also recommend a urinalysis and possibly an x-ray. I see that Dahlia is not spayed, and her symptoms could be cause by a pyometra, which is an infection of the uterus that is fatal without treatment.