HELP. Dog drinking too much water - Page 2

Keep in mind, protein uses more of the body's water stores than salt, even. So, higher protein foods will cause that. I would also try to spare the kidneys of an older dog the effects of chronic mild dehydration which is so common in kibble-fed dogs. For my 10 yr old, I give her Orijen Regional Red, frozen whole mackeral (1lb each), eggs, The Honest Kitchen (different formulas), and a green tripe/organ meat mix. Once a week or so, she just gets chicken leg quarters. Her kidney values were perfect last year, but the tricky thing about kidneys is they don't show a problem until greater than 75% of their function is compromised/lost...so...let's not wait for that to happen, is my advice. I would feed her a mix of kibble and The Honest Kitchen or similar re-hydrated food for more moisture, if you are opposed to feeding raw.

Answers to some of your questions. I will just go down the line: First off be sure she is able to handle raw feeding, I have had a couple of dogs unable to handle it and did get very runny stool and sick from it. Don't know if I overfed or what but yuck.

OK If I were you I would start her out on a pre-made frozen mixture diet. My fav was K9 Kravings. Its premixed and mostly somewhat balanced for you to start with. The chicken backs, necks and wings with a little minced meat will work fine.

I would go by her weight, her exercise regime and see how she does. At almost 10 years old I would probably start her out on l l/2 up to 2% of her body weight as far as amount to give her per day. So if she is 75 lbs. give her give her about l l/2 to 2 lbs of meat daily.

I would give raw egg once or twice per week. You want anything you give her fresh. If you go to butcher bring home and freeze for a couple of days at least which gets rid of some of the bacteria; dogs can handle the bacteria.

Given her age I would give her Kefir or yogurt or Probiotics everyday; Digestive enzymes also; everyday. Plain with least amount of sugars on Kefir or yogurt. No sugar is best.

NO honey for her, but I would give her a l/4 tsp coconut oil daily, start her slow on that, be sure she can handle it. You can increase weekly if you need to. PS I had terrible luck with Taste of the Wild, definitely drop you current kibble.

Lastly, your concerns about thyroid are justified, however, signs of that could be dull/dry coat, low energy, generally not good feeling. The cancer concerns are also justified, however no one can "guess" or even answer your concerns with certainty without something to go on. No lumps, bumps or breathing problems have been suggested, so I would not be concerned with that at this time unless her bloodwork shows something suspicious. Good luck Nan

 

PS:  I also like the honest kitchen formulas as they do hydrate the dogs nicely and a lot of them are organic.  I would still add some meat to their formulas though as well as soaking them.  They are dehydrated also.  But very healthy and handy to feed, much easier than just adding a raw diet of meats as they are fairly well balanced also.  Nan

First thing you need to do is actually MEASURE how much water your dog is drinking daily. THAT'S the only way to know if your dog is drinking TOO MUCH water, or if her water consumption has just increased. As dogs age, they often do need to increase their water intake to aid the geriatric kidneys in their functioning, which isn't a sign of anything beyond the fact that the dog is experiencing the aging process. As long as the amount of water doesn't exceed normal parameters, you've done your due diligence and had her checked out from stem to stern and can rest easily that the change isn't due to an organic problem.

Normal range of water intake for a healthy dog is between 20 to 70 ml per kg of body weight per day, which varies according to conditions and the individual dog; the average is 50 ml per kg body weight per day based on average room temperature [70 degrees F] and an average pet dog's daily activity level. A dog that drinks over 100 ml per kg of body weight per day is considered to be drinking too much water, aka polydipsia.

Hope this helps.

Animals need water to digest their food. A lady I know switched from kibble to raw. Previously after eating, her dogs would always head for the water bowl. That stopped when she started the raw diet.

Research also shows the percentage of dogs that bloat has gone up 1,500% in the last few decades. This has coincided with the feeding of dry kibble. Countries that don't feed as much kibble have a lower incidence of bloat. So, certainly it's a good idea to feed some canned food, or raw, or even table scraps as well as kibble. Or go to a completely raw diet- whatever floats your boat!

Personally, I am not a fan of raw. I've heard of too many dogs getting bones stuck in teeth, fracturing teeth, getting gastric perforations or obstructions from bones. I even know a lady whose dog choked to death on a turkey neck! With factory farming taking place under such unsanitary, crowded conditions, I also worry what bacteria raw food might contain. Raw game and fish can contain harmful parasites, so that's something else to guard against if you know anyone who hunts or fishes and wants to give you their leftovers for your dog.

The biggest thing to be aware of with raw: EDUCATE YOURSELF! An improper balance of vitamins and minerals and trace elements can cause serious harm to your dog. In a dry kibble, all these things are balanced for you. Of course, you also need to consider the ratio of protein to fat in what you're feeding. Too much fat causes the runs, and too much protein can be hard on the kidneys if the dog is elderly.

If all results come back normal, switch to raw. Problem solved.
My dogs have been on raw for 4 years. They hardly ever drink water. I also stopped unnecessary vaccines, toxic monthly heartworm meds, and toxic flea and tick crap.
Do your research and if you need a mentor, pm me here.

Brandi

PS: kibble is NOT balanced.

Your best course when switching to raw is find 1 or 2 mentors and that's it. Having lots of people giving you advice can make it overwhelming. I learned that the difficult way.
Raw is healthier and is a natural food for your carnivore. It can alleviate issues (but can create them if it's not balanced) and is usually cheaper than "high quality" kibble.

How active is your dog? Drinking a lot of water can also be caused by running too much and thus getting over heated. Most GSDs have too thick a coat to be doing a lot of running. Heat in general also causes a dog to drink more water. So if it's hot outside or even inside your home, your dog could get over heated and thus is drinking water to cool down. The most likely cause like many have already said is that the dry kibble you are feeding her is too dry or salty and makes the dog want to drink more. I had that problem in the past with cheap kibble before I went to a better grain free food. I just added warm water to the food and that solved the problem.

I got my GSD Sasha and American Bully Athena, on Whole Earth Farms Grain Free dry dog food now and they are doing wonderful on it. Both of my dogs have allergies to grains, so I had to put them on a grain free food. Cost close to $50 but it's worth it as both dogs are in stunning shape. Sasha, my GSD, is much more solid and no longer so skinny looking. Just had a vet check up (Blood work and all that.) and both my girls are very healthy. The vet even commented on how good Sasha looked compared to other GSDs she's seen.

Hi so I got the results from her urine sample and everything seems to be normal thank God. I have also put both my dogs on the raw diet. I am a fitness freak and get my meat from a meat shop that guarantees hormone and antibiotic free organic meat from grass fed cows. The chickens are also 100% organic. Anyway, I went to them and told them I wanted personalized packs for the dogs. They were very helpful and have been delivering them my house. They have agreed to deliver a 2 weeks supply of frozen packs after every 14 days. The packs include 2 chicken wings, chicken mince, beef mince, beef liver and beef kidneys, and some fat trimmings. Everything is organic I add a mush of carrots, broccoli and apples to their food as well organic hormone free yogurt. I also add a tablespoon of organic coconut oil to their food and omega 3 capsule that i got from GNC. I have really gone the extra mile for my girls and hopefully their meals will be balanced. What do you guys think?

The older dog has started drinking less water but its too early to say anything because its only been 3 days.

What do you guys think of the diet?

To my amazement the girls knew how to handle the chicken wings. They chewed them properly without trying to gulp everything in one go.

The packs are frozen and they remain frozen in my deep freezer so that should take care of all parasites no?

Hopefully this diet will clear up their skin issues as well because the younger female has a chronic ear infection. It has gotten better ever since i started cleaning her ears myself everyday instead of taking her to the vet every week.

Do you guys think the diet is balanced?

Good grief, your dogs eat better than most people do!   They certainly will have no excuse for not thriving on that feeding program! 

Glad the urinalysis came back normal. And yes, freezing will take care of any parasites in the meat.

 

The diet sounds good, wait about a month and see how the dogs look to you; you are looking for shiney coats, good stool and good energy. No hugh water consumptions or other activity like that. The raw should help your older girl to keep her muscle tone as well. Also remember that the base for their diets can remain as is but do add some variety to their diets if at all possible. Change up vegi's and add some new meats after a while just so their systems can get used to some types of change. Good luck. keep up the good work. Nan