Excessive drinking - thoughts? Vets mystified!!

Hi,

I have a query that so far every vet I have spoken to has been unable to answer, and I'm hoping someone, somewhere may have come across this issue before and managed to find out more than I can!

Last year my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel bitch (13 years old & spayed) started drinking excessively, to the point where she would drain her bowl, then flip it over and bark desperately for more; going through a lot of water, she was bloating and needing to urinate very frequently. Obviously this was very concerning; urine & blood tests were done but nothing was found.

During this time, she also lost a tooth which seemed to temporarily put her off the (high quality) kibble she normally ate. I tried her on Naturediet for a few days, which of course she loved (greedy dog), and I was amazed to realise that suddenly the excessive drinking seemed to stop. Since then, any time she has eaten kibble (of any variety) she has returned to excessive drinking/bloating...after a couple of instances of this I have kept her on wet food and feel my suspicions have been validated. Even when the kibble is soaked for hours before a meal, absorbing a huge amount of water, the reaction still seems to be triggered.

I could understand if an allergy or intolerance is to blame, but at times she has had other tinned foods (e.g. Butchers or Chappie) temporarily if I have run out, and she has been fine with these, whereas the kibble I use (2 different brands) is always high-quality, sensitivity-control type. She has been fine on the kibble for over 13 years prior to this happening (although a dabble with raw food didn't suit her).

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated, as the vets I have spoken to say they have no idea why this should be happening. I may never get an answer, and I am planning to keep her on the wet food anyway as I know that avoids the problem, but I would love to understand why this has happened.

She has also had a heart murmur for years, and a couple of months prior to the excessive drinking she had been put on Propalin to assist with age-related incontinence.

Thank you for reading!

Can I first say how LUCKY you are to have kept a Cavvy for 13 years. Not many do. That's a very ripe old age for a Cavvy and especially as she is, in the main, healthy (and hasn't lost many teeth either)

You seem to have solved the problem. My Cavvy ate wet food and moist kibble lumps. Not the dry stuff.

I think maybe you already have your answer ...... to avoid giving your old girl kibble

Aged 13 she could also have some signs of dementia which can cause unusual behaviour.

You mentioned the vet put her on Propalin a few months ago ... you may find this article interesting only because you say that she has a heart murmur. http://www.vetinfo.com/phenylpropano...or-dogs.html#b

Good luck and keep us informed.

Thank you for these helpful answers already

I do have the answer from a management point of view, and won't be switching her back to dry - it's curiosity mainly that makes me want to find out more, and the concern that whatever causes this may cause other issues as well.

I will check out the Propalin link...she has actually been switched to Incurin since then, just mentioned the Propalin as it had been given prior to the issue occurring. She is also on Vetmedin for her heart murmer.

I had my last Cavalier until 13 as well; Rosie (my current one) does have issues such as arthritis and recurring lumps between toes, as well as the heart murmur, but she still very much enjoys life. Rules the roost with my other two (bigger) dogs as well!

She has had a few teeth out, but is far from toothless, unlike some dogs her age. We do have frequent visits to the vets for heart checkups and repeat prescriptions for meds, but otherwise we manage.

Thanks for the input, it would be fascinating to discover a possible cause for this issue, not critical as it can obviously be managed but I am intrigued, particularly as each vet I speak to seems mystified! "That shouldn't happen!"

On a side note, when I first had her she was prone to skin issues - dry skin and wet eczema 'hotspots', generally 3-4 occurrences a year - but it seems these completely stopped when putting her on 'Fishmongers' dry food, followed by 'Naturediet' and now 'Lukullus'. Does just go to show how much of an impact food can have.

Interesting to read the article on Propalin...somewhat concerning, though whenever Rosie has her check the heart rate etc. are apparently quite good, which apparently counts for more than the 'grade' of the murmur does.

Funnily enough, the Incurin that she has since been put on lists a side effect as excessive water drinking...this was prescribed several months after the excessive drinking started though, and she seems fine on Incurin when being fed wet food, so doubt that could have anything to do with it.

Hello - your thread title caught my attention because I have been through this with our JRT.

He is a rescue dog, and came to us with allergies and skin problems.........he would drink and drink, and we were unsure whether it was a rescue dog thing (used to drinking water whenever it was available) or something else. He had endless tests all of which were negative.

We switched his food to Wainwrights salmon and potato kibble, and the excessive drinking stopped. Then suddenly the problem started again, and eventually we discovered that Wainwrights had changed their recipe. To cut the saga very short - we changed to another manufacturer, Fish 4 Dogs and the drinking went back to normal.

So, in our case I am convinced that there was something in the recipe for some kibbles that caused the excessive drinking.

I hope that the removal of kibble from your little dog's diet completely solves the problem. Good luck.

Thank you Bitkin...the first thought was an issue with the food, but the difficulty is that she has had several kibble varieties (inc. in activity toys) and each has triggered the same reaction, whereas no wet food has caused a problem, including the 'cheap and nasty' stuff on occasion, which suggests to me that it is more complex than a straightforward allergy.

Fish for Dogs seems a great food...my others thrive on the Pets at Home own version, Fishmongers, which seems decent and is within budget. Rosie was thriving on it too, until this sudden development...she had been on that food for months, but since the excessive drinking first occurred, it has been triggered by every variety of kibble I've tried.

All just seems very odd - maybe it's something that's specifically in kibble and not wet food, but no idea, much as I'd like to know! I won't be playing around with it, as a reaction isn't much fun for her and me, but I am intrigued.

Have you tried other brands of kibble?
My last dog used to drink ecessivly when she was on Applaws and she went back to normal when i changed it.
Sometimes dogs just don't do too well on dry, have you tried soaking the kibble or mixing it with meat to give her the moisture?
Maybe it drys her mouth/throat out a bit (i have to soak/rinse my current dogs food otherwise she coughs)

Yes, I've tried several different high-quality brands, and I've soaked it for hours in loads of water, so that it could even be mashed-up easily...no change.

At this stage I won't be changing her from wet food, as it's not worth the risk of a reaction, but I would really like to know what is going on here...I've described it all to a couple of different vets who have no idea what's going on, any variety of wet food seems fine but every variety of dry I've tried causes problems, quite dramatically.

It could be psychological....that's the only explanation i can think of. She may have had a bad experience with dry food like coughing and now she feels she needs to drink with it to prevent it happening