Excessive drinking and urinating

[McMom5]

Hi,
I'm new to the site and have found a lot of interesting posts. Hopefully someone can help.
Our 11 w/o male Rott is drinking way more than I think he should. I've already had him to the vet, 3 times. On his first visit at 7 weeks, I mentioned this and was told growing active puppies need a lot of water. Second trip I was told that it was probably due to the roundworms he had. Last time she said we can keep an eye on it.
The problem, or lack of, is that he is healthy and normal in every other way. He weighs about 22 lbs., eats 3 great meals a day and is pretty much fully housebroken. He knows the basic commands and is a total ham when we go into the vets office.
I just seem to have this gut feeling that there may be an issue.
His symptoms are:
drinking about 80 - 100 oz. per 24 hour period
urinating as often as every 15 minutes
having to get up in the middle of the night to go potty

The past couple of days he has had 'accidents'. Almost as if he has no control over it. Just stops what he is doing and pees. No sniffing, circling or even leaving the area. He uses a doggie door and it started with him making it just outside the door and not going all the way to the grass. Then a few times he actually started going on his way through the door. Now it's wherever he happens to be. We take him out about every 15 minutes just to prevent him from going in the house. If we put him on the grass and tell him to go, 9 times out of 10 he will go. Sometimes just a little as if to say "Are you happy?"

Another thing I find odd is he will be sound asleep on his bed, wake up, stumble to his water, drink a lot, stumble back, go back to sleep. He has done this up to 3 times during the course of a nap.
We crate trained him 24/7 the first 2 weeks and he did so well that we only crate him at night. The vet thinks he needs crating during the day and he is still young and that is why he is having accidents. I just think there is more to it. I really love our vet and don't want to think about finding a new one. Our last Rott was 10 y/o and had cancer of the hip. The whole office was amazing with him and to us during a very difficult time. They had been hi vet since a pup and always treated him like the only dog they ever saw. We will have a hard time finding another office with such compassion. But I don't know how to approach them with what seems to be 'my opinion'.
Another note, when cleaning up his puddles, I've noticed there is almost no color to it nor any odor. I realize this is probably due to the amount of water he is drinking, but wanted to throw that in just in case it made a difference.
I think I just need to have a few more facts or questions to approach the vet. Should I ask for a specific test? Ask about a specific illness?
Btw, his food is Nutro for large breed puppies. I'm new to this site but have noticed that I may not be feeding him a great choice. Willing to switch if suggested.
Thanks!!

[sweetlee]

The obvious is a bladder infection, ask for a test. The frequency would suggest that as would the drinking so much water. Also a puppy who pees just a drip would make me suspicious.
If you don't think your vet is being thorough enough, there is no law saying you must stay with that doctor.
I doubt the food is causing it, but you are right Nutro probably is not the best choice.
Too many grains and not enough meat.
If you search on food around here you will find the most popular choice is probably Canidae.
And of their formulas the most popular seems to be the ALS.
I have priced foods and looked over how much I would need to feed calorie wise and find that feeding the Canidae is actually cheaper than feeding Nutro or other midgrade foods because you can feed less. And value-wise it is probably the best buy. Not all dogs do great on it, but it seems most people are very happy with that choice.
Pricewise I believe it's about the same for a 40 lb bag but you get much more meat and alot more calories in one cup of Canidae.

Sharon

[ZoesMomma]

It sounds like your boy might have a bladder infection. I would take them a urine sample and tell them to send it out for testing. They do work for you and shouldn't have a problem with doing what you ask. Never be hesitant to discuss your thoughts and opinions with your vet. If they don't like it, too bad. We had the same thing with Zoe and her sample turned out to have some crystals and very little concentration. After two weeks of antibiotics and an after dinner drink of cranberry juice, the problem was gone. She still gets her after dinner drink. I am very pleased with Canidae after using it for 3 years. Both my adult Dobe and Zoe are doing great on it.

[brunie's mom]

Some puppies just like to drink!
I've seen healthy puppies, that will drink whatever water you give them, it's like a habit.

If you have ruled out all medical things, including a UTI, I would try limiting his water intake. Give him water...but measure it out and give him a chance every hour or so to drink. Without water sitting out all of the time, he may just stop the excessive drinking...and it will be much easier to housetrain.

I've had a few puppies through the years that I boarded....that did the same thing...and I made my concerns known to the owners. After all sorts of tests...and worry...the owner's just had to control the access of water. Most common in Lab breeds....they just love to drink.

I'm hoping that you get some answers.

Gina

[Lola B Marie]

When my last rottie started the peeing every 1/2 hour or so, It was a bladder infection, however, the excessive drinking can be because the pup is dehydrating or can be from diabetes. I wouldn't worry too much but you may want to do a blood test just incase it is not bladder related. I hope your pup is feeling well soon.

[McMom5]

Thanks for all of the responses. We took him to the vet this morning. Our usual vet is closed today so we had to find one that is open on Saturdays. We were less than pleased but figured they would be competent enough to run the basic urine tests. (barely!) Wanted to get him started on meds if needed as early as possible, so gave them a shot. After several minutes trying to get a sample by catheter,(while hearing him cry forever) they gave us the option of sedating him to get the sample. I asked if we could take him home and try and get the sample ourselves. He sort of looked at me like "well you can try, but it won't work". Thanks to a posting I saw on here last night, we carried him straight to the backyard when we got home, grabbing a ladel from the kitchen on the way through. As my husband 'collected' the sample, I cleaned a small container to put it in. We had that sample back to the vet in less than 10 minutes after we had left!! (thanks to whoever posted that bit of info!!!)

Here is what they found:

specific gravity- 1.031
ph- 8
bilirubin- neg.
ketone- neg.
urobilinogen- 0.2
glucose- neg.
protein- trace
leukocytes- 0
erythrocytes- 0-5
crystals- numerous struviteepithelia- 0-5
bacteria- 0
casts- 0
mucous- 0
other- 0

Vet put him on Clavamox- 375 twice daily for 7 days.

Wants to retest urine in 7 days.
There was no mention of growing a culture (as I have since read on here).
He kept asking us what he may have eaten? What treats? what could he have gottten into? Almost didn't believe us when we told him 'NOTHING!'. This pup is with one of us 24/7. He sleeps in our room in a crate. If he goes out, we go out. We know exactly where, what and how much he's taking in as well as when, where and how much is going out. What could the vet be suggesting when he asked this. Does it seem like a poison scenerio, kidney failure, etc? We asked and he said he just wanted to be sure.

Since he is just 11 weeks and a male, how likely is this to just be a bladder infection? Are there any more specific tests we should go back and ask him to run. Do you think it can wait until Monday when our regular vet is open?

Also, we switched him to Innova- large breed puppy this morning. But now we are reading posts that maybe his diet should be changed regarding the protein levels. Any thoughts?

Thanks again!

[lindak]

Hi, I am currently going thru the exact same thing. I have a 3 month old and from the beginning, she was drinking a whole lot and than she'd walk away and pee out what she just took in. (Not literally but seems that way).
We took her to the vet we used for our 6 year old girl. This vet said "puppies pee alot" and away we went. Well, we're done with them. We found a new vet and immediately he said we will check for .........................!
They checked the urine and ruled out liver shunts (excessive drinking and urinating). She has stuvite crystals 4+ ammonia, mag. & Ph. She also has a bad UTI and anemia. All this was found with our new vet and the other vet said she was in great health YIKES! My little one is on antibiotics, royal canin food RX for crystals and we'll go from there. we need to re-test in two weeks. It is so frustrating. She goes to same spot outside when we let her out - she pees and comes right back in and no sooner, she'll be playing and then hhhmmm, i have to pee and she'll just go a 1/2 hour later again. No control. I hope this is something that will stop.

[Diva Satanica]

Originally Posted by McMom5

Hi,
Another thing I find odd is he will be sound asleep on his bed, wake up, stumble to his water, drink a lot, stumble back, go back to sleep. He has done this up to 3 times during the course of a nap.

My Brinks is also 11 weeks old. He does the 'stumble around to get a drink' thing. Honestly, I compared it to my kids getting up in the night to get a drink, they are very stumbly as they're half asleep.

[pazzo]

my experience with these symtoms turned out to be disbetes. Our experience was with an older dog. Im sure your case is different but I just wanted to put it out there.

[Zumie05]

Gary drinks exessively too. When he was really young and didn't have good bladder control I had to control his water intake. He got water every 2 hours or so and I let him drink as much as he wanted whenever I put it down. That way he still got to drink a lot, but all the urine came out usually in the same potty break which made things so much easier.

Now at 6 months I still think he drinks a lot more than normal dogs, but I don't control his water anymore it is always out for him. His bladder control is really good now, but he excitedly pees which is really annoying and had also made me worry about a possible UTI.

I took him to the vet to check his urine and sure enough they said it was normal.

Sometimes I think that this is just a puppy thing and that MAYBE they will outgrow it.

[targonrotts]

the one other test i would do if after the antibiotics don't seem to help, just for completeness sake, is a complete blood panel test to make sure kidneys and other organs are working fine.

you just might have a very thirsty pup! and the more goes in, the more goes out. but at least if you see the kidneys and the rest are fine, you might get some peace of mind.