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I adopted a 3 year old male, neutered Yorkie a couple weeks ago. Playful, good appetite (eats canned dog food), good weight, appears healthy. The problem is he drinks A LOT of water. Urinalysis showed no infection and blood work was normal. He's having a bile acid test next week to test for liver shunt. But besides that, what else could he have? Should I be worried about kidney disease?

I adopted a 3 year old male, neutered Yorkie a couple weeks ago. Playful, good appetite (eats canned dog food), good weight, appears healthy. The problem is he drinks A LOT of water. Urinalysis showed no infection and blood work was normal. He's having a bile acid test next week to test for liver shunt. But besides that, what else could he have? Should I be worried about kidney disease?

Updated On May 14th, 2019

Pet's info: Dog | Yorkshire Terrier | Male | neutered | 2 years and 10 months old | 14 lbs

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Answered By Julie Settlage, DVM, DACVS-LA, CVA

Veterinarian, Board-Certified Veterinary Surgeon (large animal), Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist

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KG is lucky to have you!! It is wonderful that you have already taken him to your veterinarian for a check up. The urinalysis and bloodwork should have indicated if KG has any kidney failure (high creatinine or BUN or SDMA with a low urine specific gravity). If all of those were normal- it is highly unlikely that he has kidney failure!! Other things that can cause a dog to drink LOTS of water are diabetes (2 kinds) and psychogenic polydipsia (a fancy way of just saying they like to drink water) and a few others. Your vet can work through the blood work to rule many of these out as well as do a water deprivation test (this must be supervised by your vet!) to determine what is the root cause of KG’s behavior. Thank you for using Pet Coach!!

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