# Dog with cancer all of a sudden having accidents and drinking a TON



## Taz Monkey (Feb 25, 2007)

Not a golden retriever, but I figured I'd get more response in this forum. Sage, my 11.5 year old lab mix was diagnosed with osetosarcome on May 15th. On May 21st, the offending leg was amputated, and on June 26th, she started chemo. She had had 4 treatments, with blood panels done 8-10 days after each one, and she has 2 more to go. Health wise, she seems to have bounced back as completely as an 11 year old 3 legged dog can be expected. I'm not really sure when the excessive drinking and having accidents started, but I think it was after her surgery and before the chemo, but I attributed the accident to being thrown out of her routine and recovering from surgery. I asked the vet about excessive drinking, but even then I wasn't sure if she was really drinking excessively or if that I was just paying a lot more attention to everything that she did after her diagnosis. But today she had another accident, and I can say that she's definitely drinking excessively. She eats Taste of the Wild, and gets 4 Dasuquin with MSM chews per day, as well as 1000 mg of vitamin C per day as I was told that vitamin c aids in joint health. She's also been on 500 mg twice a day of cephelexin for the majority of the time since the amputation because she has seriously sensitive skin and where they shaved her for the surgery and where they have to shave her for the chemo IV bothers her and she likes to lick it, and it gets infected. So, would any of the above things that I mentioned cause her to drink excessively? I'm assuming it's the excessive drinking that's causing the accidents, or maybe the accidents could just be because she's old. But she hasn't had an accident since she was 6 months old, so I don't think the accidents starting after the surgery is a coincidence. Thanks!


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## Mayve (Aug 21, 2012)

Have you had her kidney function tested?


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## Ruby13 (Dec 28, 2013)

Are they giving her steroids before the chemo treatments? I've never dealt with this with a dog, but most humans are given steroids prior to chemo to prevent allergic reactions. If so, this is probably causing the excessive thirst and accidents.


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## Taz Monkey (Feb 25, 2007)

I have not had her kidney function tested (that I know of. I've spent more time at the vet in the last 3 months than I ever have in my life). But she has her post chemo blood work on Friday, so I'm definitely going to tell them that she is drinking excessively and that it's not my imagination.
I don't know about the steroids, but I just looked at all the itemized invoices and don't see anything that might be steroids. But I'd have thought that at my first mention of drinking more that the vet would have mentioned steroids?
I will definitely be voicing my concerns on Friday. The weird thing is, that she does not overdrink or have accidents at night. The water bowl in my bedroom is usually at the same level in the morning as it is when I go to bed, so none of the dogs really drink overnight, and I've gone all over the bedroom with the blacklight and the only spot was the spot where she had the accident right after her surgery. So she goes about 8 hours every night with no water and no accidents, but it seems like she's at the water bowl all the time when I'm at home.


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## Taz Monkey (Feb 25, 2007)

I'm a diabetic so I thought about testing her blood sugar, but I read all the tutorials and just ended up poking her a bunch of times with no blood coming out. But I'd have thought high blood sugar would have come up on a CBC as well.


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## Taz Monkey (Feb 25, 2007)

Her blood work was on Friday. Her blood sugar was 101 and her kidneys are perfect. He doesn't suspect cushings disease as she has no other symptoms and he wasn't able to get a urine sample because she peed right before the appointment but I wouldn't think a uti would cause excessive thirst. Anyone else have any thoughts?


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## Anon-2130948gsoni (Apr 12, 2014)

I really don't know what the mechanism would be to cause it, but when my Boomer was in his last few weeks of hemangiosarcoma, one of the only symptoms is that he started drinking more and more water.

I'm not at all sure why a generalized cancer of the blood vessels would increase thirst, though...


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## hubbub (Jun 28, 2011)

When you say "accidents" - do you mean leaking/dribbling, puddling, or worse? Cephalexin can cause nausea, maybe she's drinking to settle her stomach? I wish I had an answer for you.


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## Ziglet (Aug 17, 2014)

Chemo can cause serious dry mouth in humans and dogs alike. I know that I binge drank on water during mine. She could be doing the same thing.


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## cgriffin (Nov 30, 2011)

I would also think that it may be a side effect of the Chemo therapy.


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## Karen519 (Aug 21, 2006)

*Sage*



Taz Monkey said:


> Not a golden retriever, but I figured I'd get more response in this forum. Sage, my 11.5 year old lab mix was diagnosed with osetosarcome on May 15th. On May 21st, the offending leg was amputated, and on June 26th, she started chemo. She had had 4 treatments, with blood panels done 8-10 days after each one, and she has 2 more to go. Health wise, she seems to have bounced back as completely as an 11 year old 3 legged dog can be expected. I'm not really sure when the excessive drinking and having accidents started, but I think it was after her surgery and before the chemo, but I attributed the accident to being thrown out of her routine and recovering from surgery. I asked the vet about excessive drinking, but even then I wasn't sure if she was really drinking excessively or if that I was just paying a lot more attention to everything that she did after her diagnosis. But today she had another accident, and I can say that she's definitely drinking excessively. She eats Taste of the Wild, and gets 4 Dasuquin with MSM chews per day, as well as 1000 mg of vitamin C per day as I was told that vitamin c aids in joint health. She's also been on 500 mg twice a day of cephelexin for the majority of the time since the amputation because she has seriously sensitive skin and where they shaved her for the surgery and where they have to shave her for the chemo IV bothers her and she likes to lick it, and it gets infected. So, would any of the above things that I mentioned cause her to drink excessively? I'm assuming it's the excessive drinking that's causing the accidents, or maybe the accidents could just be because she's old. But she hasn't had an accident since she was 6 months old, so I don't think the accidents starting after the surgery is a coincidence. Thanks!


Keeping Sage in my prayers!


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## Taz Monkey (Feb 25, 2007)

Thank you all! Got a urine sample in, she does not have a UTI. I'm hoping that the chemo is just throwing something off and once it's over, the drinking and peeing will go back to normal. Two more treatments, so we shall see!


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## Jennifer1 (Mar 31, 2012)

Is she on prednisone? That caused excess drinking/urination in all of my guys.
Did they check specific gravity on the urine sample? That would give an idea of kidney function


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## Taz Monkey (Feb 25, 2007)

She is not on prednisone. I don't know how they checked her kidney function, but my vet said her kidneys were perfect. The vet did say that while she did not have a UTI, her PH was higher than normal. When I googled excessive drinking and urination in relation to urine ph, I did get several hits of people saying that when their dogs ph is high, they will drink excessively. So she's now on l-methionine to see if we can get the ph back to normal and maybe get the drinking and peeing stopped.


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