Worried about our puppy...

No way!!! hahahahaha I just told Martin that and he is glad to hear we're not the only crazy ones

We used to say box up until last week, then Martin thought of the "condo" idea. I love training dogs to silly commands

This is exactly the type of thing I read over and over on puppy forums which is what made me so concerned. I'm so sorry to hear about your baby Thanks for the good thoughts - I will definitely keep y'all updated after we talk to our neighbor who's a vet...

So the other head of the Westie rescue emailed back with this...

 

And this was my response...

 

And then (LMAO) this is the 1st ladies response to the 2nd ladies (that's not confusing...lol):

 

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I'm so glad to know that they will always be there for us - what a great organization! This is why we volunteer for them

Excess water consumption is a key to several metabolic disorders as I am sure you know by now. But, I water to see if you have actually measured his water intake? We (Vets) consider them to be polydipsic (drinking to much water) when they consume 100mL of water per kilogram of body weight. For a 15 lbs dog is about 700 mLs or 23.5 ounces of water per day.

 

If this is true then I would get a Chemistry panel, CBC, and Urinalysis done. That would inturn give an idea if there is other things going on and if further tests need to be ran.

 

I hope this helps.

We had a similar problem when Charlie was very young and we were house training him. Everytime we would come inside he would check out his water and food bowl (I guess just to see if anything knew showed up while he was outside!) and he would drink a bit. So then he would need to pee again an hour later (he was only a few months and didn't have good bladder control) and it was this awful cycle of going out and drinking when he came in, like every hour! And he would also lick rain off the pavement and grass. I called the vet and she said he was likely just what they call a "compulsive drinker", not drinking because he's thirsty but just out of habbit. They said I could limit his water intake, not only when we were not home (we only gave him the smallest amount of water when gone to work) but also his total daily water intake. At the time I think he was like 12 pounds and they said that 1 cup of water a day was enough to keep him hydrated (I'm not 100% sure, this was 10 months ago, but I'm pretty sure it was 1 cup)

 

Definitely keep him off water when he's alone to help get him house trained! Either give him none at all or just a really small amount (like 1/4 of a cup) so that he can wet his mouth a little.

 

I have no other house training advice because although our puppy made very slow progress in the first month and a half, we took him on vacation with us to my parents cottage for a week (he spent most of the week outside, and when he was inside we were always around to let him out) and then we came home and he never had an accident again! It was so weird, it was just like flicking a switch and it was done! He was only 3.5 months at that time and we were leaving him alone for up to 6 hours at a time without accidents!

 

Note: I'm not suggesting you don't need to see a vet, in fact based on your discription, I think maybe you should, but just letting you know we went through something similar and there were no problems and he got over it in a month or two (although in your case you say he's always been this way...)

Our 10 month old bulldog Trudy is just like this. We cant get her tongue off the concrete when it is raining and after a shower she heads straight for it to lick up the water. She too has accidents every now and again. She has accidents in the middle of the night, its like she wakes up and suddenly realizes she REALLY has to go and just cant stop. We have towels in there with her so it is easy to clean up. This is why she has not fully transitioned to our bed yet. I have just chalked it up to her age still. My FI says she has her mother's bladder (I tend to pee a lot in the middle of the night). Hope your baby is ok!

Jamie - did you talk to the Vet?

I'm not sure this is what your puppy has, but you might want to look at these links --- it's for something called diabetes insipidus --- one of our ferrets was suspected of having this (my vet's never seen it in a ferret before, go figure).

Pets-Get DI Too

Diabetes Insipidus

Whatever you do, I think I'd have your vet check him out before limiting his water -- hopefully, he doesn't have something like this, but if he does, just think how awful to feel this "thurst" and not have water to quench it. The reason for the urinalysis as others have suggested is to check for possible UTI's AND to make sure he's concentrating his urine. A symptom of diabetes insipidus is NOT being able to concentrate the urine. For your peace of mind I'd make sure this isn't a medical problem first before making any alterations.

Hope your little guy is better soon!

No, after talking to the Westie experts we decided to just keep him at the same water level and watch him. However, I was trying to keep track of how many times he went pee yesterday and it was over 10x. Before we wouldn't let him outside every time he barked because we thought he couldn't possibly go that much. But yesterday out of concern every time I heard him whimper I let him out and he would always go pee. I don't think that is normal... but he does seem normal in every other way. It's so confusing Does anyone else's dog go this much in one day??

Jamie - i do not think that is normal, at all.

 

some blood work can't hurt?

Maybe he has a really small bladder - i'm not sure about little dogs - meg holds it for ages but she has a bladder the size of niagra lol

 

I think i'd get him checked out even if its just to put your mind at rest