2 yr old neutered male urination problem

[Rowledge2]

I was not able to find a thread on this topic so if there is one please direct me to it. Thank you

We have a 2 yr old neutered male blue Doberman, he is house trained, about a week ago we noticed that he started waking us up at night to go out and pee, he would just pee and pee, he does drink a lot of water, ( we live in AZ and he plays a lot). So we started keeping a better eye on him, and we noticed Friday while laying down he appeared to be leaking, I am thinking the poor thing has an infection. So off to the vet we went. The vet called today to tell me she thinks it is an overwatering issue, as the specific gravity of his urine was diluted. all of his blood work was great, no diabetes, no kidney issue, she did mention the WBC/RBC were within normal limits, but Leukocytes and another portion of the WBC were elevated, but she associated that with his current Dermatitis Of course, he was just finishing a round of antibiotics for his recent skin issue (probably why his WBC was not elevated) He was also taking Benedryl, as advised by the vet,
So now we have to limit him to 10 cups of water a day.

Is this a thing?? or is the vet off her rocker!

 

[Oh Little Oji]

I always hesitate to give health/medical advice, but: You are now limiting him to 10 cups of water per day? Even 10 cups seems like a lot. I mean, not outrageous, but seems like a lot to me.

Then again, with our current Dobe, I have always had him ask for water. This was carried along from potty training, when I recorded his every drink amount and time. So he asks for water and I give it to him at my discretion (I don't knowingly deprive him of course – I want him to be sufficiently hydrated).

I think Oji drinks significantly less than 10 cups of water per day.

I can tell you that my previous Dobe had what I called a "drinking problem." He seemed that he would just keep drinking and drinking from a bowl if I didn't cut him off. I didn't ever measure quantities with him. Incidentally, he died of bloat while being boarded during a heat wave,. I believe the employees there did not heed my warnings to not let him gulp water while panting.

But anyway, maybe you could look up how much water a dog needs based on size and try to get his amount to roughly match that.

 

[Rowledge2]

Thank you! I did look it up and it's 1 oz of water per pound of dog, plus additional for heat and exercise. So in his case, it's about 11.25 cups.
I feel he may drink more because of the heat and his activity level. The good news is while we were up a few times with him overnight no wet areas in the house. We are keeping a close eye on him when he is outside as it's the monsoon season and he heads right for the puddles.
This is also new to us as we never had this issue with our previous Dobi's either.

Thank you for the heads-up onboarding we did board him a few weeks ago, and I never thought about warning them of possible bloat. Sorry, you lost your fur baby, it really hurts!

 

[Kaiser2016]

Hm, so that’s 10 cups for an 80 lb Doberman. We did limit our dog‘s water intake when he was a puppy (for potty training), but not after that. I’ll have to check how much he drinks in a day now. I found a link that was very informative: Does Your Dog Have a Drinking Problem?

Dobermans do tend to gulp a lot of water, so we always tell him to stop if he’s drinking too much. With the water being accessible, he can always come back later for more.

 

[Firestar Dobe]

Not sure how much the Sinisters drink. It does sometimes feel like all we do is refill the water dish! Also, it is better to use stainless steel dishes and wash them out every night.

 

[strykerdobe]

Maybe just try and cut his drinking out a few hours before bed time.

 

[Rowledge2]

So after going back to the vet a few more times, with various urine samples, we limited the water, and after a few days, he started showing improvement. It turns out, as it has been a few months since then, that he was water obsessed. Something I did not think of, since we live in Arizona, and he plays a lot. He now has a small stainless steel water bucket outside that we refill every morning with fresh water, he drinks what he wants, and is not at this time having any more issues