More pee and a food question

So ever since Gavroche was on antibiotics for his possible UTI he's been fine. His specific gravity was still a bit low (1.023, up from 1.018) but he wasn't having accidents anymore. I put him on cranberry to help prevent any more UTIs. He even stopped grinding his teeth (not sure if that's coincidence or not, but it stopped midway through his antibiotics).

Weellllll...yesterday morning Logan woke me up and Gavroche was sitting on my bed panting and wouldn't settle down, so I got up to take him outside. Before I even got out of bed he went to the door and started peeing. He was clearly trying to hold it, but it was still coming out. He peed A LOT when we finally got outside.

I'm going to check a specific gravity tomorrow morning or Wednesday morning and go from there. I still have the thought of diabetes insipidus in the back of my mind...he does drink a lot of water, and his pee is always clear or nearly clear.

The other thing I worry about is his kidneys. He's 4 1/2 and his BUN is 26 (27 is high normal) and creatinine is 1.8 (which is high normal). He had blood work 6 months ago and jsut a few weeks ago, and his creatinine is stable but his BUN is rising (I think it was 20 6 months ago). He's currently on a Victor Professional Grain-Free which has 43% protein. Would you switch to something lower-protein? TOTW Pacific Stream and Wetlands have 25% protein. I know there are Victor formulas with lower protein, too, but their website's down :/ I like the ingredients in Victor better and it's cheaper than TOTW, but I can do either, or something else entirely. Logan's on a different food anyway (TOTW Wetlands) so it doesn't matter to be what food I get, either way I still have to get 2 bags lol.

I don't know your dog or his back story and this maybe a stupid question. But have you tested him for Cushings? As for food, I like middle of the road protien levels. I dont' feel that dogs these days for the most part work hard enough or fast enough to eat very high protien in a kibble.

Best of luck with your boy.

I have wondered about Cushing's in the past, but he does have hypothyroidism. Once his thyroid was under control, all the other symptoms of Cushing's went away too, so I figure they were part of the hypothyrodism (hair loss, muscle atrophy, etc). The only signs he has now are the excessive drinking and urinating. He's in fantastic condition now (finally!).

may be worth test for just in case, glad he's back in shape now.

Victor has a grain free in the red bag (main protein is beef) that's 33% protein instead of the 42%

The high normal BUN and creatinine are probably related to the diet. I don't think he needs that protein level, but it's not necessarily a problem, either. More protein in = more BUN/creatinine out, but there's no evidence that's damaging to the kidneys.

Personally I would test for Cushing's. It's not that unusual for hypothyroidism, diabetes, and/or Cushing's disease to occur together in some sort of combination of two or even all three.

I just ordered a couple bags of Earthborn Meadow Feast grain-free since I've been wanting to try it. I got 2 28lb bags for $80ish with free shipping

I'm taking a urine sample in tomorrow to see what it looks like.

Grrrrrr...well I just got an email from the company I ordered the food from, and apparently they don't ship dog food. Then WHY THE HELL can I ORDER dog food?

Yeah, and if you had read what I posted you would see that I have taken him to the vet multiple times. I work at the vet.


Anyway, for those of you genuinely interested, his urine specific gravity was 1.026 twice last week, so not too bad. No accidents since either, so maybe he just drank more than usual that day. I'll keep an eye on it.

I've put him back on TOTW for the time being, I just ran out of the Victor. I think I'll probably order a bag of the regular Victor grain free next week.