[countrygrrrl]

I took in an older German Shepherd girl a year or so ago - she drinks unbelievable amounts of water and pees like no one's business.

In her case, she's got a little spay incontinence, but she also has some kidney failure and diabetes going on. There's a lot of things which can cause it, so it would be hard to diagnose based on your description alone.

One very important thing for you to remember: never deprive a critter like this of water. Doesn't matter if you think they're drinking too much, they have to have it. Get a much bigger water bowl and always keep it full. Guys like this REALLY need the water.

 

[countrygrrrl]

moopups, you might want to be careful about assuming it's diabetes. My older GSH girl does this and, when investigating it, I discovered there could be many causes. I just ran a search at vetinfo ( http://www.vetinfo4dogs.com ) on excessive water intake (polydipsia) and came up with all these results for younger dogs:

Younger dogs: * kidney disease, liver disease, leptospirosis, pyelonephritis, pyometra (uterine infections -- * occur rarely in spayed dogs but do sometimes occur in them), Fanconi's syndrome (Basenjis* are prone to this, not too common in other breeds), medication side effects (especially
corticosteroids), polycythemia (too many red blood cells), hypoadrenocorticism, diabetes* insipidus, bladder stones or other urinary obstruction and behavioral or psychogenic water* drinking.

You might check around to see if you can find an affordable and knowledgable vet in your area, or some kind of animal program which could help you. Good luck, and here's hoping you find the solution easily!