The relation to your dogs symptoms and the Blue Buffalo food are very alarming.

Time for a vet visit!

Gosh, I hope a quick switch of foods will help things clear up right away. Best case scenario.


And Connie- GOOD CALL, on mentioning hypercalcemia in your first post!!

More like, why did the vet not test for the common triggers of excess water intake and outgo.


To be honest, I was thinking more about hypothyroidism or psychogenic polydypsia, both over-represented in young Labs. (Of course, I'm not a vet. )

But the vet saying "well, some dogs just drink a lot" in a situation that the O.P. described, and doing no simple tests .... distressing, as mentioned throughout the thread by you, by Barbara, and by the O.P.

And the O.P. was in search of a new vet.

Thanks! I really appreciate that. It looks like they mentioned Wilderness and Chicken formula specifically where mine have been eating the Large Breed Chicken not the Wilderness, but frankly I don't think there is a whole lot of difference other than proportions between the two. A couple of days ago I bought the fish formula so if this doesn't clear up within the next couple days, by two weeks I'll have to change foods again. I just hate mail ordering food... I never remember to order it in time. And I'm not really sure what other choices I have left locally. Lady got her shots this weekend and the vet was very impressed with her condition.

I have a similar problem with my 6.5 mo GS. He drinks like a monster. I tried three different foods. The vet knew right away what it was and told me to put the water bowl down three times a day for him.

I only had one time that he threw up and it was kibble and water. It just happened this morning...hence I am on this site searching...I watched him drink the water, which, I had limited and then he came over, and started playing with me, burped and puked. This is the first time this has happened.

My problem was that I brought him to the vet for loose stools. He asked me if the dog drank a lot of water? More than a normal dog? I answered Yes to both. He told me what it was a psychosomatic type issue...and said it happens with some puppies. Very playful, happy, friendly puppies. They do it because they are bored and it is something to do, like smoking a cig...

I do not use Blue Buffalo. I use Taste of the Wild Dry Dog Food, Hi Prairie Canine Formula with Roasted Bison & Venison. It was very well rated and had the right ingredients as far as I had researched. Before that, I used Fosters & Smith....which the dogs really didn't like.

The dog gets fed a half a can with kibble mixed in, but is free to eat kibble any time he wants. I also started feeding rice in the food. He is a big sloppy drinker too. Its all over the floor. Does your dog have any of these other symptoms I listed? I hope he grows out of it. I am keeping the vet on it. I just found a new good guy.

Any time I switched my dog from raw to kibble (especially Blue), he started drinking water like a fiend. My husband dubbed him "the water buffalo" because it was so bad. This would happen within 24 hours of starying him on kibble. I learned my lesson, and just keep him on raw now.

I have a gallon water gravity feeder thing.... and we were filling it up constantly.. a few times a day. It was unreal. His system just cant handle the kibble.

 Quote: ken eric

I have a similar problem with my 6.5 mo GS. He drinks like a monster. I tried three different foods. The vet knew right away what it was and told me to put the water bowl down three times a day for him.

I only had one time that he threw up and it was kibble and water. It just happened this morning...hence I am on this site searching...I watched him drink the water, which, I had limited and then he came over, and started playing with me, burped and puked. This is the first time this has happened.

My problem was that I brought him to the vet for loose stools. He asked me if the dog drank a lot of water? More than a normal dog? I answered Yes to both. He told me what it was a psychosomatic type issue...and said it happens with some puppies. Very playful, happy, friendly puppies. They do it because they are bored and it is something to do, like smoking a cig...

I do not use Blue Buffalo. I use Taste of the Wild Dry Dog Food, Hi Prairie Canine Formula with Roasted Bison & Venison. It was very well rated and had the right ingredients as far as I had researched. Before that, I used Fosters & Smith....which the dogs really didn't like.

The dog gets fed a half a can with kibble mixed in, but is free to eat kibble any time he wants. I also started feeding rice in the food. He is a big sloppy drinker too. Its all over the floor. Does your dog have any of these other symptoms I listed? I hope he grows out of it. I am keeping the vet on it. I just found a new good guy.

IMO, I would first try the dog on canned only and observe the water intake. I would do this for two days in order for all kibble to leave the system.

I say this because I'd want the info this would give me, including whether the dog had polydipsia that was not related to kibble, which would have me doing certain tests asap. If it was strictly so-called "kibble thirst," that would influence my decision about food choices.

I want to point out that there are some kibbles (ALS, or all life stages) that may have slightly more calcium than is ideal for every dog. (Yes, a healthy dog "should" flush out a slight overage in calcium amount. Still .... see the following paragraph.)

In my opinion, this slight overage in Ca for some individual dogs may be true of Taste of the Wild High Prairie Canine Formula with Roasted Bison and Venison. This was talked to death on another board, and between my calls to TOTW and others' conferences with vets, we were undecided as to whether the answer was a QC issue or the actual intended Ca amount perhaps being a tad high for some individual dogs. (We all knew about the http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?articleId=16468 issue, which was why we followed up on this pretty doggedly. haha.)

Either way, the folks observing polydipsia on that food ended up switching, and as far as I know saw no further problems. I agree that TOTW has a very good IL, and in fact is on my list of kibbles to use (probably a different recipe, after all this) if for some reason I ever have to use kibble. I will also add that IMO, such possibly-borderline issues as this (and the avoidance of many potential insufficiencies) are minimized by variety.

But again, I'd simply try canned for two days and least get an intake baseline.

I'm not a health professional. All JMO.

"My problem was that I brought him to the vet for loose stools. He asked me if the dog drank a lot of water? .... He told me what it was a psychosomatic type issue...and said it happens with some puppies. Very playful, happy, friendly puppies. They do it because they are bored and it is something to do, like smoking a cig..."

In my opinion, this is far too casual and facile a response. This does exist, but would certainly not be my first response before doing very simple food-switch experiments.