Why is my senior dog drinking too much water and having accidents?

Question

We have a 17 year old border collie Springer mix at approx 50 pounds. She is happy and eat I g regularly. We assist her to poop about every 4 hours. She has slight lee problems. Inside and has unlimited water. Can we regulate her water intake to stop indoor accidents when we are at work if we give her the remainder of her water requirements when we are home. Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed | Female | spayed | 16 years and 3 months old | 47.9 lbs

Christie Long, DVM · Accepted Answer

The issue with regulating water intake is that there is *something* that is driving her to want to drink water, and if you restrict her access you run the very high risk of putting her into dehydration. In other words, she needs the water, likely because of a medical problem, and that need doesn't go away if you keep water from her, so the tissues become dehydrated without the supply of water, and later giving her access to that quantity of water will not rehydrate her effectively. The important thing is to try to find out what is driving her to drink so much water that she has accidents in the house, or becomes incontinent (often called overflow incontinence when combined with excessive thirst). Diabetes mellitus, diabetes insipitus, kidney failure, liver disease, and certain cancers (lymphoma comes to mind) are all possibilities, and I would urge you to not limit Molly's water intake, but to instead try to find out what is driving it. Your vet can start with blood work and a urinalysis in order to try to start determining what's going on.

Why is my senior dog drinking too much water and having accidents?

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