I originally put this in "breeds" by mistake:


I'm curious if anyone tracks how much water their dog(s) drink, besides
"seems normal" or "seems low/high".

My pets all share the same water bowl. The cats have their own but
don't use it. The dogs also have an automatic water bowl outside, so
they have fresh water to drink (and not drink the pool water!).

I felt that I was filling the communal water bowl a LOT, so I finally
got a "Le Bistro" waterer. 5 gallons (this sucker is heavy!). I got it
Friday midday, and filled it sometime mid-afternoon. We had to fill it
again Monday before bed. I think it's about 1/2 full now, but we've
been indoors more due to the heat, where we had been outdoors almost all
day Sunday, and a good deal of the day on Saturday.

Does this seem like a lot? A little? Just right? Unless the dogs are
guzzling or not drinking at all, I don't worry about it, but curious if
anyone else knows how much water gets consumed by their dogs!

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

On Wed, 08 Aug 2007 15:05:32 -0400, Janet Boss
wrote:

I'm curious if anyone tracks how much water their dog(s) drink, besides
"seems normal" or "seems low/high".

My pets all share the same water bowl.

For house dogs, I have a watering rack that holds 6 stainless steel
bowls, which are refreshed at mealtimes. I don't really track
individual water consumption, but I do keep an eye on dogs who appear
to be drinking more or less than usual.

[...]
Does this seem like a lot? A little? Just right? Unless the dogs are
guzzling or not drinking at all, I don't worry about it, but curious if
anyone else knows how much water gets consumed by their dogs!

I think the rule of thumb is supposed to be 1 ounce of water per pound
of body weight per day, but IME that varies widely, depending on a
dog's activity level, age, weather, etc.

--
Handsome Jack Morrison

Why "liberal" doesn't quite fit:
"In the short term, this reflects the failure of the Republican Party to secure its hard-won victories. In
the longer term, this may provide a new opportunity for the heirs to authentic liberalism - today's conservatives -
as they often thrive when lovers of big government, by whatever name they go by, overreach."
http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/...beral-doe.html

"Reality-based" Rabbi Defends Michael Vick:
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archi...iberal_lo.html

"The main proponents of 'universal coverage' want to throw more money at the current health care system,
which strikes me as unwise. I believe that the 'universal coverage' mantra is dysfunctional for the same
reason that 'more money for public schools' is a dysfunctional mantra for education. When your current
approach is digging you into a hole, the sensible thing to do is not to dig faster. It is to stop digging."
http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=080607B

Janet Boss wrote:

Does this seem like a lot? A little? Just right? Unless the dogs are
guzzling or not drinking at all, I don't worry about it, but curious if
anyone else knows how much water gets consumed by their dogs!


I have read that "normal" consumption is about 0.7-1.4 oz per lb
of body weight, depending on lots of factors, like activity level
and temperature.

Oppie and Chile together consume about 5-7 cups per day (80 lb
total together), living in an A/C house, with as much outdoor
time as they want, and a 1 mile walk for Oppie early in the
morning. Most of that is Oppie's. His big bowl is at shoulder
height, but he also drinks from her little one on the floor.

We started keeping track of water consumption last fall when we
noticed that we were filling Oppie's 7 cup bowl twice a day - he
was drinking 12-13 cups each day. The only problem the vets
could find was a low specific gravity of the urine (yeah, he was
drinking a lot!); other kidney and glucose tests were in the
normal range.

His drinking went down after we switched brands of his dog food;
he had been eating two brands that subsequently turned up on the
recall list, though we don't know the batch numbers. We suspect
melamine contamination - of course, we can't prove it. (Melamine
is a diuretic, among it other properties.)

FurPaw

--
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched,
every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense
a theft from those who hunger and are not fed,
those who are cold and are not clothed."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

To reply, unleash the dog.

On Aug 8, 3:05 pm, Janet Boss
wrote:

I'm curious if anyone tracks how much water their dog(s) drink, besides
"seems normal" or "seems low/high".

I don't monitor water intake as a rule, but I do monitor urine output,
both quantity and quality (I watch as it comes out to see if it
appears too concentrated), for the dogs and the cats. Thankfully my
cats aren't shy about whizzing in my presence. The little one
actually follows me into the back bathroom and goes when I go.

We have communal water bowls all over the place and there's no way I
can know who is drinking how much.

"Lynne" wrote in message: :

I don't monitor water intake as a rule, but I do monitor urine output,
both quantity and quality (I watch as it comes out to see if it
appears too concentrated), for the dogs and the cats.

Can I send you Khan so you can be slowly driven out of your mind, trying to
figure out urine quantity and quality? That boy marks on just about every
blade of grass, tree trunk and bush.

We have communal water bowls all over the place and there's no way I
can know who is drinking how much.

This is actually a bit of a problem at the moment. If Khan's current course
of therapy doesn't work, he'll need to be tested for diabetes insipidus, and
one of the ways to do it is to monitor water intake for a 24 hour period,
administer an ADH mimic for a prescribed period of time, and then monitor
the water intake for another 24 hour period. Between multiple dogs and
water drinking at the dog park, there is no way to do this and maintain any
kind of accuracy. To get around it, we'll check urine specific gravity pre
and post medication; it's a little more onerous and expensive, but to me,
seems like the most practical thing to do. The third option is to do a 24
hour water deprivation test (it's exactly as it sounds and he'll need to be
at the vet for the last 12 hours of it because it can cause serious problems
due to dehydration), but there is no way I'm putting him through that.

Suja

On Aug 8, 4:51 pm, "Suja" wrote:

Can I send you Khan so you can be slowly driven out of your mind, trying to
figure out urine quantity and quality? That boy marks on just about every
blade of grass, tree trunk and bush.

I may be singing the same tune once Hendrix figures out the joy of
marking!

This is actually a bit of a problem at the moment. If Khan's current course
of therapy doesn't work, he'll need to be tested for diabetes insipidus, and
one of the ways to do it is to monitor water intake for a 24 hour period,
administer an ADH mimic for a prescribed period of time, and then monitor
the water intake for another 24 hour period. Between multiple dogs and
water drinking at the dog park, there is no way to do this and maintain any
kind of accuracy. To get around it, we'll check urine specific gravity pre
and post medication; it's a little more onerous and expensive, but to me,
seems like the most practical thing to do. The third option is to do a 24
hour water deprivation test (it's exactly as it sounds and he'll need to be
at the vet for the last 12 hours of it because it can cause serious problems
due to dehydration), but there is no way I'm putting him through that.

Oh, poor Khan, and poor you. I think I'd keep him isolated from the
rest of the pack (with the exception of humans) for 48 hours rather
than leave him with the vet.

I hope you get to the bottom of this soon. He isn't getting
glucosamine, is he?

"Lynne" wrote in message:

I may be singing the same tune once Hendrix figures out the joy of
marking!

As I read what you wrote, I said to myself, 'So speaketh someone with no
marking boydogs (or girldogs, for that matter)'.

Oh, poor Khan, and poor you. I think I'd keep him isolated from the
rest of the pack (with the exception of humans) for 48 hours rather
than leave him with the vet.

The problem with an open floor plan is that it doesn't leave a lot of room
for managing dogs that way. Khan's scared of the bathroom, so leaving him
in one is not an option either. The only semi-viable option is to tether
him to me the whole time, or play upstairs-downstairs.

I hope you get to the bottom of this soon.

It's kind of funny in a pathetic sort of way that I check his skin daily,
looking for any signs of improvements. At this point, if it did improve,
I'm not sure I'd be able to tell. That's why I'm trying to keep him away
from the vet the whole time; if she doesn't see him too frequently, she
should be able to tell when he's improving. Hopefully.

He isn't getting
glucosamine, is he?

Yes he is, why do you ask?

Suja

Suja,
My 15 year old Lab drinks water excessively. I took him to my Vet.
She suggested testing for Diabetes by catching his first urine of the
day and then inserting those Diastix tabs into the urine for testing. I
think I did that for 5 mornings in a row. You can buy that product OTC
from a pharmacist. That is certainly the least scientific way of
testing. However, since he hasn't had any further problems and he came
up ok on those test strips I have not done anything further. I am not
suggesting you rely on this method, but if your dog is diabetic it may
show up via the method I used.


Be Free.....Judy

On Aug 8, 6:19 pm, "Suja" wrote:

He isn't getting
glucosamine, is he?

Yes he is, why do you ask?

The research into the link between glucosamine and diabetes is
inconclusive, but when I was taking it, my blood sugar levels became
so high that I was having heart palpitations. I wrote it off as
stress and ignored it for months, until the palpitations continued
during a particularly amazing climbing trip in the desert. My doctor
had me on a strict diet to try to control my blood sugar, but it
didn't help a bit after 2 months. He came across research to suggest
a link between bood sugar problems and glucosamine and told me to stop
taking it. Within just a few days I was back to my normal-for-me
hypoglycemic levels and having no more palpitations. I was monitoring
my blood sugar at home at that point and my physician was ready to
start me on insulin injections.

Given that I've been hypoglycemic since I was a teenager, I clearly
have issues regulating blood sugar already. The glucosamine appears
to have triggered the far more dangerous hyperglycemia. I was also
having all the other symptoms of diabetes, along with the heart
palpitations. I won't touch glucosamine now, even though it made my
horrible joints feel much better. I will not be giving it to any of
my animals, either.

FurPaw
You described Oppie as having low specific gravity of urine and that
an indication of that was his excessive consumption of water. What does
that mean and what did you do to resolve the matter? I believe you said
that showed up after blood/lab work? Thanks, Judy


Be Free.....Judy