I’m keeping an eye on him and will call the vet if it continues. Last night and today, Captain pretty much drained his Big Dog fountain, which has a two gallon reservoir. I noticed him drinking a lot last night, but he was also being kind of bad (jumping up to bother the kitties when he isn’t supposed to) and we kind of think he might run to the water bowl as a kind of “I’m not getting up to bug the kitties, I’s thirsty! I’s not being bad!” sort of thing. Also, I’d given him the dish from the brisket to clean up, which had a lot of juices and maybe it was salty. Anyway, this morning when I went into his room he had had an accident on the floor, which has never happened in the months we’ve had him.
So, I didn’t immediately call the vet since maybe it was a one-off sort of thing. But if he continues to drink a lot, how much is too much and possibly a health issue sign? (Recall that I live in South Carolina, where it got into the triple digits last week.)
ETA - he also had his first obedience class today and he was an embarassment. He shook and cried the whole time and howled and made noises like a monkey, and then he tried to crawl into my lap. Not related, probably, but funny. And emotionally exhausting. Our dog is the class dumbass.
Is the dog peeing a good amount of the time? As long as the dog doesn’t drink the water too fast, and he is peeing an amount expected from the amount of water drank, it shouldn’t be a health threat.
Now, I’m not a Vet, I’m just basing this off other mammals.
Sudden excessive thirst and a loss of housebreaking are good cause to at least call the vet right away. A phone call is free. I don’t know what the cause could be but they will tell you whether it’s serious enough to bring him in.
And the behavior at obedience class *could *be related.
[techspeak on, sorry, trying to simplify]
Even if the dog pees as much as he drinks, even if everything else is “normal”, this will eventually lead to “medullary washout” in the kidneys.
Kidney is divided between cortex and medulla. The medulla is the final part where the urine is concentrated or diluted before being sent to the bladder. To do its job adequately, there must be an osmolar gradient between the medulla interstitium and the filtrate coming from the cortex. If too much water passes through it, eventually the osmolar gradient will be lost (the concentrated ions will go to the more dilute urine, and eventually there won’t be enough ions to help concentrate).
[/techspeak off]
I’m ignoring (for purposes of this) any other pathologic causes of polydipsia (drinking too much) and polyuria (peeing too much). A physical exam, a U/A, a call to your vet, some history, may give the vet a better idea of what’s going on and what to do.
And to the OP: I remember being told something like 60-80mL of water per kg. It was a broad rule, though, as it overestimated in some animals and underestimated in others. But it was a ballpark estimate, used in cases where the owners had to exactly measure the amount of water the animals were drinking.
IANAV but my dog started behaving this way and we took her to the vet. Turns out she had Cushing’s disease. She was drinking forever and started having accidents in the house.
Well, the pee I stepped in yesterday morning IN MY CAST WHICH IS ON UNTIL THURSDAY was very dilute - I actually checked to make sure the washing machine wasn’t leaking, because that would have been the other suspect. When he pees, he does it in great volume, but then I’ve always had little dogs and am not really accustomed to a large one.
Luckily, since he only drinks from the fountain, I have an easy way to tell how much he’s taking in. If the fountain is sucking air again this afternoon I’ll take him to the vet. (He shares it with three cats, but obviously they don’t make a dent in it compared with a 65 pound dog.)
ETA - didn’t find any puddles this morning, by the way. It’s VERY unlike him to go in the house. On the other hand, we did go to bed early that night, so maybe he had to wait longer than he could handle.