How much is too much water?

[Bentley Doodle]

My 11-week-old doodle has been going potty every 10-20 minutes.  We noticed this change in his potty pattern last week.  Before that, he used to be able to hold it for more than 2 hours.  I brought him to the vet last Friday and his tests came back negative for UTI.  They even did a cystocentesis and took a sterile sample from his bladder using a catheter and sent it to the lab.  We got the results today and they didn't find any bacteria.  I started giving him the cranberry chews and for some odd reasons, that actually helped out a lot with the frequency of his urination this past weekend, until today when his symptoms are back again.  The vet also clipped the hair around his privates to prevent bacteria from collecting there when he goes.

Today, since it's a Monday and a regular work-week, we are back to our normal routine:  

5:30 a.m.     -  Wake up / potty break (pee and poop)

5:45 a.m.     -  Breakfast (fill his bowl with approx. 16 oz. of water)

6:30 a.m.     -  Potty break - Pee (sometimes, he asks to go outside around 6am, but not consistently)

7:00 p.m.     -  He goes in his crate while we are gone (work and school)

11:30 a.m.    -  I come home for lunch to let him out (pee and poop most of the time).  He eats and drink the food and water that was left from breakfast.  Most of the time, he drinks all of the water up around this time, so I put another refill (16 oz).

12:30 p.m.    -  I take him outside one more time, then he goes inside his crate

3:00 p.m.      - My eldest comes home from school and he goes potty (eats and drinks leftover food and water from lunch). (Goes potty every 10-20 minutes).

4:30 p.m.     - I come home from work.  I'm not sure how many times my eldest takes him out to go potty before I come home. (Frequent potty breaks again)

5:00 p.m.     - Playtime outside (if weather permits) and he comes back and drinks the left-over water.  The more running around he does, the more water he drinks.  Between 5-pm to 6pm, he goes potty every 10-20 minutes and drinks a lot of water again (refill #3 is around this time...another 16 oz of water in his bowl.  

6:30 p.m.    -  Winding down (Bentley takes a nap)

7:30 p.m.    -  Potty break (eats remaining food in bowl...drinks water)  I remove his water bowl around this time to get ready for bed.

8:00 p.m. - 10 p.m.    - Potty break is getting less frequent and he naps more around this time

10:30 p.m.   - Pees and poop before bedtime

This is the daily routine the past couple of days.  His frequent potty breaks are mainly only between 3:10pm when my daughter comes home from school and around 7pm.  He then winds down the rest of the night.  I am starting to get paranoid because the vet asked me if he is drinking more often, and it is really hard to gauge it when he doesn't have water while we were all out and he's drinking alot when he's out of his crate.  His frequent urination is starting to worry us, hoping that it is not a symptom of a more serious disease or illness.  Is 32-48 oz of water too much to drink for a 15-lb 11-week-old doodle?

Can anyone relate to our daily schedule?  I'm curious if anyone has experienced this frequent urination dilemma that we have.  The good news is, he does wimper and bark at us when he wants to go out, so he does tell us when he needs to go.  If we do't respond to his wimper and bark immediately, he gets an accident.  He currently is within a play pen/gate while we're home, and goes i the crate when we are out and when he's in bed at night.  I'm interested to read your experiences.  I hope that he's not drinking too much water and that I'm just getting worried over nothing and that he'll just outgrow the frequent urination.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The water consumption sounds very high to me. I've never measured, but my adult standard doodle (70 lbs, and used to weigh 80) rarely drinks 48 oz of water in a day, and he's a pretty good water drinker. I would talk to the vet about further testing. There can be other causes of polydipsia (excessive water drinking) and polyuria (excessive urinating) besides a UTI.  

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

I have 3 dogs and fill their 64 oz.water bowl once a day - sometimes they drink it all if it is really hot, but  most days there is probably half left from the previous day.  Even dividing 64 by 3, none of them drinks 48 oz., ever. 

If you go for  more tests, please update us.

[Bentley Doodle]

Thank you for your input. I will definitely continue to log his water consumption. He will have his 12-week vet visit and booster shots on Friday. I will make sure I'll continue to measure the amount of water I put in his bowl.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Let us know the results of your monitoring and reporting it to the vet.