Help. My 12 year old Jack Russell Emma is constantly drinking and urinating, especially at night and its getting myself and my husband down as we are not sleeping properly. Emma has been tested for Cushings and Diabetes which were negative. She is ok when I am there during the day but shows off when I go out (I have just retired). If I go in the spare room and she comes with me she lets me know when she wants to go out but as my husband has to get up at 5am for work every day she is not allowed in our bedroom. I am at my wits end, any suggestions please as in all other respects she is fine and thinks she's only 2 years old.
Thanks

Originally Posted by wendymac

Help. My 12 year old Jack Russell Emma is constantly drinking and urinating, especially at night and its getting myself and my husband down as we are not sleeping properly. Emma has been tested for Cushings and Diabetes which were negative. She is ok when I am there during the day but shows off when I go out (I have just retired). If I go in the spare room and she comes with me she lets me know when she wants to go out but as my husband has to get up at 5am for work every day she is not allowed in our bedroom. I am at my wits end, any suggestions please as in all other respects she is fine and thinks she's only 2 years old.
Thanks

If all medical issues have been eliminated (diabetes, cushings, renal failure, etc.) then simply take the water bowl up after a certain time.

Has your vet done a urinalysis? How about a thyroid panel and kidney panel? Your vet may also need to check her for Diabetes Insipidus, which has nothing to do with blood sugar. One common way to check for that, she'd have to spend several hours in hospital while they deprive her of water and measure how much urine she's putting out. If she has DI, she'll continue to produce a lot of urine, even though she's had nothing to drink.

Another thing; is she spayed? Pyometra, a very serious infection of the uterus, can cause excessive urination and drinking, (PU/PD). In fact, PU/PD is sometimes the only symptom you see.

My dog also did this and test neg for all the normal stuff and we found out she has a liver infection.

aww i hope that your dog will get well soon..

So sorry you're going through this, it must be tough! I know of dog owners who take away the water bowl at night and they say it helps. My dog has a water dish out for him at all times, but he doesn't have this problem.
I read somewhere that there's a whole list of potential illnesses to watch out for with excessive drinking and urinating so I would go back to the vet. You may want to consider doing a urinalysis as vetgroomer suggested?

[lil mutt]

any update about your pet? I hope the vet didnt find anything serious...

[lulusmom]

There are a number of conditions that cause excessive drinking (polydipsia) and urinating (polyuria). I see that you have ruled out cushing's and diabetes and I would assume that vet ruled out pituitary dependent cushing's (PDH) or an adrenal tumor (AT); however, there is another form of cushing's called "atypical" which involves adrenal steroids (progesterone, aldosterone, estradiol, 17 OH Progesterone, Androstenedione) ther than cortisol which is found in naturally occurring cushing's. The symptoms are almost identical and PU/PD is very common in atypical. A full adrenal panel can be done; however, the only facility in the world to do this the University of Tennessee (Knoxville). I have two dogs, both Pomeranians that have pituitary dependent cushing's as well as atypical cushing's.

There is also another form of diabetes called diabetes insipidus. Did your vet rule this out? In order to diagnose, some vets do a water deprivation test to see if the kidneys are concentrating; however, this is a very risky procedure so most vets prefer to use Desmopressin eye drops. If the dog has diabetes insipidus, the water intake and frequent urination usually improves within a few days of starting the drops. You can then safely assume that the dog has diabetes insipidus. We tested one of my Poms with these drops but they didn't work for him which is how we figured out he had atypical cushings. By the way, the water deprivation test is very risky because if a dog has pu/pd and the kidneys are not concentrating, withholding water can kill a dog. The dog drinks water to keep up with the urination, not the other away around. Without free access to water at all times, a dog can become dehydrated very, very quickly and die. Unless your vet has ruled out absolutely every possible cause for the pu/pd, DO NOT WITHHOLD WATER and even then, I'd be concerned.

Originally Posted by CrestieRsq

If all medical issues have been eliminated (diabetes, cushings, renal failure, etc.) then simply take the water bowl up after a certain time.

By all means, seek veterinary care to determine whether there's an underlying medical condition.

Hopefully there's nothing medical going on.

If not, I would ask what you are feeding this dog, how much and how often ... including treats.

Two drinking/peeing related stories ...

I've got a shih tzu puppy in my care who came to me at around 4 months eating a very cheap brand of kibble. She drank constantly and was having major housesoiling issues.

I was very frustrated as I was diligently crate training her. She would go straight from the crate to the outside to do her business. If she didn't at least pee, she would go back into the crate to try again later.

She would usually pee immediately, and for a long time. So we'd come back in and she would play with my other dog for about 10 minutes and then pee on the floor. Grrr!

When the bag of kibble ran out, I decided to switch her to raw (as that's what I feed my other dog). She took to the new food immediately and, as I expected, her water consumption dropped dramatically. (this is normal as dogs can actually maintain hydration on raw food without drinking anything as it is about 75% water. Unless he's hot, has exercised or eaten some people food, my big dog rarely drinks)

Her peeing accidents went away almost overnight (except for the fact that the little bugger still doesn't ask to go outside, so she will have accidents if I don't remember to take her out).

I knew that she would drink less, but never really thought about the affect it would have on housetraining. I can see now that when she was eating kibble, she actually was drinking far more than just the difference in water content between kibble and raw food. It was just too much for her little system. (she was also pooping an awful lot)

I was talking with my mailwoman about the dogs and she told me another story about her dogs. They thought she was having bladder problems because she was drinking and having accidents in the night. (an older dog) She discovered that it was related to the rawhide chewie that her husband was giving the dog every night before bed. They stopped the rawhide and the problem went away.

So, assuming there's no underlying medical condition, I would recommend you look to what you are feeding.

Picking up the waterdish before bed is not a bad idea, BUT .... If you plan to withhold water before bed, you should make sure that you do not feed ANY dry food for AT LEAST 2 hours before you pick up that water dish. Dogs NEED adequate water to digest kibble (or dry biscuits, rawhide, etc) so you must give the dog the opportunity to drink.

(note people food is often salty, so it will also make the dog want to drink)

Good luck.