Standard Poodle. Excessive Thirst and Urination. A REAL UPDATE!

[DawnCt1]

Dawn, make sure your vet checks for Cushings. It's unfortunately common in poodles.

We thought Reilly was developing it or diabetes a few months back because for 2 nights he would wake us up every hour for water and he actually peed in the house which he never does. The doctors tested him for both and both were negative. We did find the culprit later though - the little bugger had found a 3/4's full package of Dentastix and polished them off. The doctor said those things will make them thirsty, especially when you eat more than your stomach should be able to hold

One sign of Cushings is hair loss.. have you seen any thinning or patches of hair missing on your dog?

Annie peed in her sleep! No problems with hair loss however....I don't think. I did see poodle hair on the rug the other day but I think someone was combing her hair. I know that drugs like lithium can cause diabetes insipidus in humans. I wonder if excess sodium and hypernatrimia can cause it in dogs. Lithium is a salt.

 

[DawnCt1]

I know you must be beside yourself with worry. Minky(my standard) loves to counter surf. I was up at 3am last night cleaning up sparkly aluminum-foil-vomit in the hall. Got into somebody's Easter basket, I suppose.I hate to hear about your experience with bloat. I won't even ask how much that cost. I glad he lived though. Our St Bernard got bloat when he was 7yo. It killed him in about 2hrs. It was horrible.

I hope it turns out okay and something easy to treat. Minky sends good luck

Poodles can counter surf because they don't have paws, they have hands! The bloat was scary. We are lucky we found it in time. The total cost was about $2200. They gave me a break on the weekly cardiograms.

 

[DawnCt1]

Does she act like she's in pain? Was her temp normal?

No pain and no fever.

 

[Chris2597]

I hope your dog is ok.....I almost hate to tell you this...but my cat had the exact symptoms....weight loss, excessive thirst, urination, and very lethargic....He was one sick kitty....after much testing and $$ it was discovered that he had kidney failure...The vet asked if he had gotten into anti-freeze....nope, he is an indoor only cat....sadly, he died a couple of days later. A few months later his twin brother (my moms cat) died of the exact same thing....
I do hope things work out for your pooch.

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

I hope she's okay, Dawn. As the "father" of 3 poodles, I understand the hands comment. Those guys are like houdinis.

If you had to estimate how much turkey she got, how much would it be? I know that besides the salt issue, turkey in excessive quantities is not good for dogs. That could be causing the long recovery.

 

[DawnCt1]

I hope she's okay, Dawn. As the "father" of 3 poodles, I understand the hands comment. Those guys are like houdinis.

If you had to estimate how much turkey she got, how much would it be? I know that besides the salt issue, turkey in excessive quantities is not good for dogs. That could be causing the long recovery.

Two to three cups. I am so sorry I didn't make her throw it up but I didn't think it would be a problem. No bones!

 

[lisajl]

I was thinking of pancreatitis too. Is your dog home with you now? Did the vet do a full blood workup? Or just a urinalysis>?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Dawn, my first thought too was diabetes insipidus. Did they test for that? http://www.petdiabetes.org/diabetes_insipidus.htm

 

[ilovepcot]

Dawn, make sure your vet checks for Cushings. It's unfortunately common in poodles.

We thought Reilly was developing it or diabetes a few months back because for 2 nights he would wake us up every hour for water and he actually peed in the house which he never does. The doctors tested him for both and both were negative. We did find the culprit later though - the little bugger had found a 3/4's full package of Dentastix and polished them off. The doctor said those things will make them thirsty, especially when you eat more than your stomach should be able to hold

One sign of Cushings is hair loss.. have you seen any thinning or patches of hair missing on your dog?

As the owner of a Poodle, I decided to read up on Cushings. The following is what I found:

Symptoms: Symptoms of Cushing's disease can be vague and varied and tend to appear gradually and progressively. It is thus easy to mistake Cushing's disease for normal aging. Additionally, many of the clinical symptoms are not unique to Cushing's and could reflect a number of other health concerns.

The most common symptoms include:
• increased/excessive water consumption (polydipsia)
• increased/excessive urination (polyuria)
• urinary accidents in previously housetrained dogs
• increased/excessive appetite (polyphagia)
• appearance of food stealing/guarding, begging, trash dumping, etc.
• sagging, bloated, pot-bellied appearance
• weight gain or its appearance, due to fat redistribution
• loss of muscle mass, giving the appearance of weight loss
• bony, skull-like appearance of head
• exercise intolerance, lethargy, general or hind-leg weakness
• new reluctance to jump on furniture or people
• excess panting, seeking cool surfaces to rest on
• symmetrically thinning hair or baldness (alopecia) on torso
• other coat changes like dullness, dryness
• slow regrowth of hair after clipping
• thin, wrinkled, fragile, and/or darkly pigmented skin
• easily damaged/bruised skin that heals slowly
• hard, calcified lumps in the skin (calcinosis cutis)
• susceptibility to infections (especially skin and urinary)
• diabetes, pancreatitis, seizures

 

[DawnCt1]

Dawn, my first thought too was diabetes insipidus. Did they test for that? http://www.petdiabetes.org/diabetes_insipidus.htm

i will ask tomorrow when I call for an update. They admitted her to the animal hospital. There is someone there all night so she is in good hands. She has no other symptoms. Her appetite is okay but she doesn't eat that much anyway, unless she steals stuff she isn't supposed to have. They are doing a full chem profile to see what her lytes are, etc. The symptoms came on very suddenly and haven't abated. The only finding so far on the xray was an enlarged urinary bladder. Edited to add; I guess I inadvertantly tested for diabetes insipidus according to the web site. I did limit her water intake and it was able to concentrate.

 

[DawnCt1]

Annie is back home. After a chem profile, urinalysis, liver emzymes, xrays, the problem was an overload of sodium that triggered a response in the kidneys to over excrete and stimulate thirst. It may even take a few weeks to resolve but it should get better. One of her liver emzymes was slightly elevated but that should get better too. Probably due to all of the rich food in addition to the sodium. She is laying on the garage floor with the door open watching the world go by. That's what she likes to do and its raining out. I think she must feel 'warm'. She hasn't been in the house to get a drink of water for a while and there aren't any puddles outside yet, so maybe its getting better. She had an ear infection too so they pulled all of the hairs, flushed the ears, amoxicillin, otimax, some of her immunizations, an overnight in the hospital. She will get the rest next Friday. Heart worm test and the bill wasn't too bad. $312 including her perscriptions. Thanks for all of your good wishes.

 

[Virgo10]

Glad to hear she's doing better. Poor puppy!

 

[alliecats]

YAY! What Rx's can they give for this, if you don't mind me asking? You might want to ask your vet about Denosyl, since she had an elevated liver enzyme. It is the dog form of SAM-E, and just basically supports the liver and healing when it needs it. We had good results with it with my cat when her liver numbers were out of whack last year.
I am glad you got good news!

 

[DawnCt1]

YAY! What Rx's can they give for this, if you don't mind me asking? You might want to ask your vet about Denosyl, since she had an elevated liver enzyme. It is the dog form of SAM-E, and just basically supports the liver and healing when it needs it. We had good results with it with my cat when her liver numbers were out of whack last year.
I am glad you got good news!

They are just going to let it resolve. She has a follow up visit on Friday.