Does your dog pee a lot all of a sudden? Are the potty breaks long, only for your dog to pee very little? Are you scared that your dog may have UTIs?
Dog owners love to see their canine friends thriving. However, sometimes, they experience issues that we don’t understand. One of these issues is frequent urination, which can be caused by many health problems that need instant care.
So, if you want to know why your dog is frequently peeing in small amounts, continue reading.
What Causes Excessive Urination in Dogs?
There’s a number of diseases that can cause frequent urination and accompanying symptoms in dogs. Here are the most important ones.
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Urinary Tract Infections
UTI or urinary tract infection is a common yet painful condition that happens when bacteria enter the urethra, reach the bladder, and infect it. Older female dogs are more likely to experience UITs than others.
While UTIs are painful for your canine friend, they are treatable with antibiotics at the recommendation of the vet. Also, vets recommend increasing the dog’s water intake during recovery to help flush out the bacterial infection.
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Bladder Cancer
If urinary tract infections keep happening and they’re unaffected by treatment, there could be a more serious underlying condition, such as transitional cell carcinoma. This type of cancer is a malignant tumor or bladder tumor in the bladder. If your veterinarian suspects cancer, they identify it through x-rays to be sure.
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Bladder Stones
Bladder stones, as the name suggests, are stones that form in the urinary tract. They happen as a result of minerals in the urine clumping together.
Your veterinarian may use x-rays, radiographs, or abdominal ultrasounds to detect stones. The next step could be a urine sample or urine culture for further confirmation that it’s not another kind of infection.
Usually, the treatment is a change in diet meant to dissolve the stones. Your veterinarian may also perform a procedure using sound waves to break up the urinary stone. As a last resort, your female dog may go through surgery.
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Urinary Incontinence
Urinary incontinence refers to involuntary urination in dogs, as in they dribble urine, whether they’re awake or asleep, and have accidents in the house. A lot of reasons can cause this lack of bladder control, such as aging, obesity, anatomical abnormalities, and nerve damage.
In addition, spay incontinence is pretty common, especially in mature female dogs. According to Merck Animal Health, urinary incontinence can affect up to 1 out of 5 spayed female dogs on an average of 2.9 years after ovariohysterectomy.
Depending on the cause, your veterinarian will conduct a variety of tests, such as abdominal ultrasound, urine sample, cystoscopy, and blood test.
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Kidney Disease
It’s one of those diseases whose name we never wish to hear, but unfortunately, we do when our dogs get older. Chronic kidney disease, also known as chronic renal failure, is a progressive loss of kidney filtration function over a period of time.
Despite popular belief, kidney failure doesn’t make a dog unable to pee. In fact, it causes older dogs to drink a lot of water and urinate in large amounts. Unfortunately, by the time we see signs of CKD, the damage is done. However, there are treatments that give dogs a little bit more time. Diagnosis includes a complete urinalysis and a blood chemistry analysis.
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Liver Disease
Just like you, the liver is pretty important for your male dog. It metabolizes sources of energy, detoxifies the blood, stores nutrients, produces bile acids, and eliminates waste. So, it’s a pretty big deal.
Liver disease can be one of two things: acute or chronic. The acute liver disease tends to happen rapidly due to poisoning. Its chronic counterpart develops over time and is not cured but managed by medications.
Some of the symptoms of these diseases include needing to drink a ton of water and pee excessively. Diagnosing these issues typically involve x-rays and ultrasounds.
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Diabetes
Diabetes is a chronic condition where the body doesn’t produce enough insulin, which causes glucose levels to spike. The excessive glucose or sugar in the bloodstream causes a lot of damage to the dog. Of course, some of the signs include drinking water and peeing excessively.
Diagnosis of canine diabetes includes blood glucose concentration and urine tests.
How Do You Know If Your Dog Has a UTI?
When a dog has a urinary tract infection, they show many symptoms that help you know if you’re observing closely. They’ll frequently urinate, be in a lot of pain, and may get feverish. Once you notice any of these signs, take your dog to the vet.
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Frequent Urination
The frequency of peeing differs from one dog to another, but let’s say that you let your dog out to pee 3 times a day. If your dog has a urinary disease, chances are they’re going to want to go out up to 6 times a day, if not more.
Also, you’ll notice that their frequent breaks happen in a small amount each time, meaning that they’re not peeing as much. If that’s what your dog is going through, you need to get them tested for urinary tract infection.
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Accidents
You spent long months, if not more, house training your adult dog, and you succeeded. Your dog knows where to pee and poop, and you’re a proud dog parent now.
Suddenly, your dog breaks all of the house training you’ve powered through. All the potty breaks, puppy pads, and crates went to waste because you’re back to square one. If your potty-trained dog just started peeing where it’s not supposed to, there’s a serious health problem/urinary problems.
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Smelly Urine
Now, we’re not saying that there’s ever urine that smells good. That being said, sometimes, when there’s an unchecked medical problem, it can smell really bad. So, if it smells more than usual, maybe it’s time to contact your veterinarian.
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Bloody or Cloudy Urine
One of the most obvious symptoms of a urinary obstruction/urethral obstruction is bloody urine or cloudiness in the dog’s urine. However, it can be tricky to see unless your older dog has “accidents” in the house and leaves pink stains. Sometimes, instead of looking pinkish, urine looks cloudy.
If you see these changes when they urinate, there’s probably an infection in your dog’s lower urinary tract disease.
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Straining to Urinate
You can’t miss this one. We don’t speak dogs’ language, but we can easily tell when one is in pain. Dogs that have dog’s bladder infections tend to strain, whine, or yelp whenever they pee.
If you see any of these signs in your dog, take them to the vet immediately because it indicates serious health issues that need veterinary care.
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Genital Licking
Dogs, or pets generally, have a habit of licking their sensitive parts. That being said, if you find them licking their genitals more frequently than they’re used to, they could be trying to ease the pain of upper urinary tract infections.
Of course, the licking won’t make the pain go away, but at least these signs help dog owners know when something’s wrong so that they take their dog to the vet as soon as possible.
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Fever
Since UTIs are infections, it comes as no surprise that they can come with a fever. Fever makes dogs feel hot when we touch them, yet they don’t stop shivering. It’s one of the more advanced symptoms, which means that you should take your feverish dog to the vet as soon as possible.
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Polydipsia and Loss of Appetite
One of the tell-tale signs of bladder infections is polydipsia, polyuria or seemingly unquenchable thirst. You can notice it when, out of nowhere, your dog keeps drinking water, yet the amount of urine they pee doesn’t match their water intake.
Another concerning symptom of UTIs is the loss of appetite. Dogs suffering from bladder stone find it hard to pee, so they won’t feel like eating, and it’s pretty noticeable.
How Often Should a Small Dog Pee?
Puppies and dogs of smaller breeds are expected to pee more frequently than older or larger dogs. As a general rule of thumb, a puppy can hold it in hours equal to their age in months plus one. So, a 3-month old puppy can control the bladder infection for only 4 hours, and a 4-month old for 5.
Also, don’t forget that all dogs need to go to the bathroom within 15 minutes of drinking or eating. However, we recommend taking a puppy out to the bathroom every hour to make sure that no urinary accidents happen. Once they become adults, expect them to go to the bathroom around 3 times a day.
Final Thoughts
We hope that this article about excessive urination or increased urination in dogs has been helpful. As we’ve mentioned, some of the causes for these painful urination/painful symptoms are bladder cancer, bladder stones, and kidney failure, to name a few. Also, there are common concerns about UTIs that need answers.
So, it’s really important that pet owners educate themselves about the causes and symptoms of frequent urination or submissive urination for the well-being of their dogs.
