Worried about our puppy...

[JaimeLynne]

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Originally Posted by Christine oh we totally call their crates their condos too, how funny.

No way!!! hahahahaha I just told Martin that and he is glad to hear we're not the only crazy ones

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Originally Posted by FutureMrsB OMG, that is so cute. We just tell our doggy to go to her box. :-( I hope the vet says everything is ok with your puppy!!

We used to say box up until last week, then Martin thought of the "condo" idea. I love training dogs to silly commands

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Originally Posted by MoWife Let me start by saying I didn't have a chance to read everyone's responses yet so I could be repeating something someone else said, sorry if I do. We have a 122 lb. Geman Shepherd who would drink constantly if we let him. We were not concerned at first, but then he had an accident or two (and he's 3 years old) and he began vommiting. After blood work, urinalysis, and an expensive ultrasound. They found he was in bit of kidney failure. He takes meds every day now and urinalysis shows he is improving but he still drinks a ton of water! So I would say it could be nothing or could mean kidney problems. If it gets worse or you just get 2 worried I would take a urine sample and the vet can check it. I'm sure he will be fine. Keep us posted!

This is exactly the type of thing I read over and over on puppy forums which is what made me so concerned. I'm so sorry to hear about your baby Thanks for the good thoughts - I will definitely keep y'all updated after we talk to our neighbor who's a vet...

[JaimeLynne]

So the other head of the Westie rescue emailed back with this...

 

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My Scottie does that and it appears to be a bad habit as much as anything. His original owners would limit his water intake all the time, not just when they were gone and I think once he started getting as much as he wanted he would drink and drink thinking it might not be there later on, after about a year he stopped doing that and now he does just fine.   Also, Meredith is correct, some food causes them to be very thirsty. A normal every day urinary tract infection could cause that as well.       Yes, it’s also a side effect of Addison’s, Cushings, diabetes, etc. but dogs don’t have those diseases all that often and usually not until they are older. Are you letting him have rawhides during the day or some other kind of treat? My dogs drink tons of water after chewing on rawhides or chewing on some toys.       At some point if it continues you could have a urine analysis done to check for an infection and to make sure that his urine has proper concentrations but unless you see other symptoms of illness I’m like Meredith, I just wouldn’t worry too much. It did take me an entire year to potty train my first westies, I thought we would never make it but after the one year mark it was like a new dog and the accidents just stopped.       If you do need peace of mind get a urine analysis done as they aren’t that expensive and it might make you feel better. He’s probably just being a normal thirsty westie! LOL       Keep us posted and give him a hug for us!       Theresa

And this was my response...

 

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Thanks to you both for your comments!   Theresa, We usually leave a tennis ball in there with him, but we do not give them rawhides. 1-2x a day he gets 1/2 of a Nutro Puppy Treat. We feed him Nutro Ultra Puppy.   It does seem like he's just sort of loading up as if the water will somehow run out. Do you think we should keep letting him drink as much as he wants or keep it reasonably limited for potty training purposes? Luckily we are students so we get to come home during the middle of the day to let him out but of course we can't be around all of the time. For now, we have put him in Ollie's box as it is a little smaller. So far, so good. He really started yelping a little bit ago letting me know he had to G-O!   If this is just regular puppy training behavior then yes it can be stressful, but there is an end in sight! As long as he is OK health wise I'm fine with that!   We may go ahead and do a urine analysis just to be on the safe side. We feel like over-protective new parents of a baby, but better safe than sorry   Thanks again, Jaime

And then (LMAO) this is the 1st ladies response to the 2nd ladies (that's not confusing...lol):

 

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Come to think of it, Molly drinks until she throws up. And we have never restricted her water. Westies and Scotties are weird!   Mer

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I'm so glad to know that they will always be there for us - what a great organization! This is why we volunteer for them

[APRILOO]

Excess water consumption is a key to several metabolic disorders as I am sure you know by now. But, I water to see if you have actually measured his water intake? We (Vets) consider them to be polydipsic (drinking to much water) when they consume 100mL of water per kilogram of body weight. For a 15 lbs dog is about 700 mLs or 23.5 ounces of water per day.

 

If this is true then I would get a Chemistry panel, CBC, and Urinalysis done. That would inturn give an idea if there is other things going on and if further tests need to be ran.

 

I hope this helps.

[SunBride]

We had a similar problem when Charlie was very young and we were house training him. Everytime we would come inside he would check out his water and food bowl (I guess just to see if anything knew showed up while he was outside!) and he would drink a bit. So then he would need to pee again an hour later (he was only a few months and didn't have good bladder control) and it was this awful cycle of going out and drinking when he came in, like every hour! And he would also lick rain off the pavement and grass. I called the vet and she said he was likely just what they call a "compulsive drinker", not drinking because he's thirsty but just out of habbit. They said I could limit his water intake, not only when we were not home (we only gave him the smallest amount of water when gone to work) but also his total daily water intake. At the time I think he was like 12 pounds and they said that 1 cup of water a day was enough to keep him hydrated (I'm not 100% sure, this was 10 months ago, but I'm pretty sure it was 1 cup)

 

Definitely keep him off water when he's alone to help get him house trained! Either give him none at all or just a really small amount (like 1/4 of a cup) so that he can wet his mouth a little.

 

I have no other house training advice because although our puppy made very slow progress in the first month and a half, we took him on vacation with us to my parents cottage for a week (he spent most of the week outside, and when he was inside we were always around to let him out) and then we came home and he never had an accident again! It was so weird, it was just like flicking a switch and it was done! He was only 3.5 months at that time and we were leaving him alone for up to 6 hours at a time without accidents!

 

Note: I'm not suggesting you don't need to see a vet, in fact based on your discription, I think maybe you should, but just letting you know we went through something similar and there were no problems and he got over it in a month or two (although in your case you say he's always been this way...)

[lucy106]

Our 10 month old bulldog Trudy is just like this. We cant get her tongue off the concrete when it is raining and after a shower she heads straight for it to lick up the water. She too has accidents every now and again. She has accidents in the middle of the night, its like she wakes up and suddenly realizes she REALLY has to go and just cant stop. We have towels in there with her so it is easy to clean up. This is why she has not fully transitioned to our bed yet. I have just chalked it up to her age still. My FI says she has her mother's bladder (I tend to pee a lot in the middle of the night). Hope your baby is ok!

[Alyssa]

Jamie - did you talk to the Vet?

[PenMarie]

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Originally Posted by JaimeLynne So I'm wondering if any of you have come across this before?? I've read on the internet that this can be a symptom of some pretty big health issues (diabetes, kidney issues, etc.) but it seems like vets have varying opinions on it - some say it's normal and others say it's not. We are waiting to speak with our neighbor who is a vet after he gets home tonight to see what he thinks...

I'm not sure this is what your puppy has, but you might want to look at these links --- it's for something called diabetes insipidus --- one of our ferrets was suspected of having this (my vet's never seen it in a ferret before, go figure).

Pets-Get DI Too

Diabetes Insipidus

Whatever you do, I think I'd have your vet check him out before limiting his water -- hopefully, he doesn't have something like this, but if he does, just think how awful to feel this "thurst" and not have water to quench it. The reason for the urinalysis as others have suggested is to check for possible UTI's AND to make sure he's concentrating his urine. A symptom of diabetes insipidus is NOT being able to concentrate the urine. For your peace of mind I'd make sure this isn't a medical problem first before making any alterations.

Hope your little guy is better soon!

[JaimeLynne]

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Originally Posted by Alyssa Jamie - did you talk to the Vet?

No, after talking to the Westie experts we decided to just keep him at the same water level and watch him. However, I was trying to keep track of how many times he went pee yesterday and it was over 10x. Before we wouldn't let him outside every time he barked because we thought he couldn't possibly go that much. But yesterday out of concern every time I heard him whimper I let him out and he would always go pee. I don't think that is normal... but he does seem normal in every other way. It's so confusing Does anyone else's dog go this much in one day??

[Alyssa]

Jamie - i do not think that is normal, at all.

 

some blood work can't hurt?

[Hartyt509]

Maybe he has a really small bladder - i'm not sure about little dogs - meg holds it for ages but she has a bladder the size of niagra lol

 

I think i'd get him checked out even if its just to put your mind at rest