A friend told me her dog has been having accidents and the vet blamed it on a liver problem leading to too much urine. How is that possible? I thought the kidneys were responsible for regulating excretion of water, and if there’s a liver problem it must be affecting the kidneys somehow…right?
I asked my friend to get more info from her vet, both to satisfy my curiosity and to make sure the treatment the vet proposes is correct for her dog, but in the meantime…anyone?
What seems to be a good list of signs and symptoms:
last on the list is:
The only animals I treat are human, and liver problems are not something which would cross my mind if someone was drinking and peeing excessively.
That said, I believe a vet once said to us something along the lines that many major illnesses in dogs can manifest as excessive drinking (perhaps as a behavioural response to ‘stress’). Even if true, I don’t see why liver disease would rank highly as a potential ‘stress’.
FWIW, in humans, excessive thirst with excessive urination could occur with:
Notably absent from the above list is bladder/urine infection. Urinary tract infections often cause frequent urination but do not cause excessive volumes of urine to be produced or cause excessive thirst.