the new dog i got, the male pit has started doing something odd. He will, only sometimes, drink until the bowl is totally empty, and he is literally so bloated he looks like he is pregnant and ready to whelp.
He has done this twice now. He won't lay down because it is so uncomfortable, and he stil is begging for water, he digs at the bowl, and howls.

He drank over a gallon though(it is a several gallon waterer).

The weird(er) thing is that Maya, my corgi mix does this too, about once a month, she will drink like this. And if we are on walks she is looking in all the ditches, and licking the sidewalks where she knows water collects.
She bolted out of the house one time, and drank all the water out of all the buckets for the tied out dogs on my block, not kidding. She didn't eat for 2 days after that, but still wanted water.

Now, she was tested for diabetes, and that was negative, the only thing i can think of is that she has an obsessive disorder.
Now this guy is showing the exact same signs.

i will say that something they have in common is they both lived at the end of a chain for years before i got them.

Don't know that that is related, but it could be.

has anyone else had this experience with the compulsive drinkers?

One of my Pits does this. I asked the vet and she said it's typical (she has 5 Pits) and it's related to how much air they ingest while drinking. Neither of us have found a way to remedy it. However, cover all your bases regarding WHY he wants this much water. Other things besides Diabetes can cause this.

what other things?
Because my corgi mix does the same thing.
I try to stop tem, i keep them on a leash when they are in this mood, but when we go outside, they are licking the ice and te grass. I know they may think they are thirsty, but when you just inhale a gallon of water.......

Some dogs drink a lot of water when they're in pain. Some with kidney issues do, too. There are lots of reasons. If more than one of yours is doing it, it could be food-related. I really don't know. I only know my female Pit does it to the "just about to whelp" degree, and if you watch her, she's getting tons of air, and actually spilling as much as she drinks...it's the air "bloating" her. She's not actually drinking that much water. If water is really being consumed in GALLONS, I'd say you need to look into the medical side of things. Research "polydipsia."

Quote I found relating to exercise/stimulation ...and having little or no exercise may drink excessively from boredom, up to three times normal amounts. It may also occur in dogs, apparently from psychological causes, with large amounts of water a day being consumed and a corresponding polyuria with a large volume of dilute urine produced.

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Increased+water+consumption

Edited by Jenni Williams (01/05/2008 02:38 PM)
Edit reason: forgot to add URL

it does seem like they are getting a lot of air-they are drinking so fast, and they usually throw some of it back up.
The pit eats kibble right now, chicken soup, but maya eats raw.
She used to do it when i fed kibble too.

is it possible it has anything to do with being chained up with little care? I don't want to automatically say that they have issues when they don't, but i know they if they weren't regularly given water, maybe they have learned to gulp it down fast.....

it does seem to coincide with more crate time. When i am gone longer, or like now, i am starting over with some ground work stuff.
But obviously i let them drink, so it's not like they are locked away for days with no water, though because of their past, they might think that. But they do get exercise, but it is just walks, no running around playing. I guess for my active dogs, that is reduced for them. They are so used to going for hours hiking and running, this groundwork it boredom for them. But i know they need it.

the whole thing doesn't hurt them, it's just really annoying, and they become obsessive about finding water. Maya can drink a ton of water before leaving to go on a walk, and she is still going bazirk when we walk near a ditch or puddle. I correct her, and she stops, but i can see the wheels in her head turning......

she used to be like this over food, and crumbs on the ground outside, but she got over it.

From what I read, it IS possible that it's compulsive in nature, due to boredom (I wonder if PAST boredom created habits like this...) and chain-life certainly would qualify as boredom.

My brother's two dogs were compulsive water drinkers to the point of barfing if someone was foolish enough to set down a completely full water bowl or bucket. They did this after walks, before walks, after eating (eww), and it was like the off switch in their mind got turned off when they started drinking. We took them to the vet and found nothing wrong on several occassions.

Solutions that we came up with were moving the water dish away from the food dish. We were concerned that the scarfing at that particular location translated somehow over into water on the level of association. Eventually we went to doggie waterbottles in their crates and just plain getting smaller water dishes.

We're not sure why but this immediately stopped after my brother moved out of Colorado.