Blood Drug Testing

Why would an old westie develope a terrible thirst? Blood tests for liver & kidneys are fine & not diabetic?

He drinks about 6pints a day, and asks for more water when he drinks all in his dish. It is worst in the evening, and he has at least one accident each evening, even letting him out 4 or 5 times during the evening. All tests from the Vets are coming back negative, no one seems to know what is happening.

Public Comments

1. What do you feed him?
2. Cushings, Thyroid, many other things that your basic labs do not show. Have them check further with some of the labs for these. What does he look like? Thin coat? Overweight?
3. There are still many test that need to be done. Cushings, Thyroid just to name two. Your vet is the only answer here. Get a second opinion.
4. My first thought is that if he is an indoor dog, your house may be quite dry due to low humidity caused by your heating system. Also, if he is eating a dog food that has a high salt or ash content, he may feel thirstier. Try switching to a dog food that has a lower salt and ash content - your vet would be a good resource to recommend an appropriate food.
5. If the dog has worms it will cause excessive thirst, I believe it's whip worms, but could be hook worms. Get him checked for worms at the vet, or if you have a feed store, Pet-co, etc you can get wormer there. Just follow the directions on the bottle, and make sure he can be outside for a few hours after.
6. Dogs that have cancer will often drink excessively. I am not saying he DOES have cancer, but that is very common, especially when nothing else can be found.
7. definitly check for cushings. also, have you reciently turned your heat on? it might just be too warm for him so he's drinking a lot more to cool down. but i would definitly take him back to the vet for more tests
8. st.lady mentioned cushings and having some knowledge of cushings, yes your dog can develop a huge thirst from that. However, there would most likely be other symptoms as well. How old is the dog? Is the dog a guts, is the dog overweight? Does he have itchy skin or pimples, little non cancerous tumours, flakey skin? skin conditions are also linked with cushings. Cushings dogs don't seem sick, they are bright and happy normal dogs, but they tend to want to eat and eat and drink and drink. and then of course... go to the toilet and go to the toilet. Have another chat with your vet and if that doesn't help, I'd start shopping around. Oh yeah and another thing. cushings usually occurs in older dogs. Problem with cushings is that it's hard to diagnose. They can display heaps of symptoms but tests will come back negative. Sometimes it takes perseverence. Search for cushings in wiki and take a look at case studies if you want to have an idea of how hard it is to diagnose. The other thing is that cushings causes other related conditions too. Definitely take your boy back to the vet.
9. Have you had him checked for a urinary tract infection, Cushings, and bladder stones? Also, there are meds that may help - our dog is on chlorpheneramine (I think that's how it's spelled) for allergies, and it has the side effect of stopping her sleep incontinence. It doesn't affect all dogs that way, but it may help. On a practical side, they make waterproof crib mattress pads (we got ours in the baby section of Target) that have soft flocking on both sides with a waterproof barrier between them. We put them on the couch, etc. where our dog usually sleeps, so when she does have an accident, it's a lot easier to clean up.
10. our old dog had testicular cancer and he drank a really lot it might be worth checking out