Won't drink water - need your advice

P

penny w

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Backstory:

Jagger had awful diarrhea last Sunday. We pulled his food for 24 hours, stool softened then stopped altogether for a couple of days. On Tuesday we gave him rice and pumpkin. Wednesday through today he has been eating rice and boiled chicken, topped with pumpkin. On Thursday he decided he didn't want to hardly drink any water. Friday and Saturday he would not touch the water (those days, I covered his food with water and got him to eat some ice cubes also). He is eating fine, seems to feel fine (acting normal), but won't drink water. He pooped twice yesterday, none today so far.

We took him to the vet yesterday. They gave him some fluids, a diarrhea tablet, and probiotics to sprinkle in his food. He wouldn't touch water until about 11pm last night, then gulped up some (we had put low sodium chicken broth in it). Now at 10am on Sunday he is turning his nose up at the water bowl, even with the chicken broth.

It really scares me because how quickly we lost Scout. His gums are pink. If he doesn't drink today out of his bowl, I will take him back to the vet tomorrow and ask for blood work.

Am I acting correctly? What else should I do today to encourage drinking? Thanks for your help as always.
 
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I'm sorry to hear about Jagger, Penny. I can understand your concern after losing Scout.

Frequently after a bout of diarrhea, they don't poop on their normal schedule and it's not unusual for them to go a day or two with infrequent movements.

There are some good suggestions on this recent thread about water, although it sounds like you've covered most of them. Using canned food to add liquid is another good one though. See if any of this helps:
http://www.sheltieforums.com/showthread.php?t=18481&highlight=drink+water&page=2

It's good that he's eating and acting fine. It may be that he's getting enough water with the liquid you're adding to his food. One of my Shelties turns up her nose at the water bowl even in the summer (but loves to drink from the garden hose when I run it on the sprinkle setting) so I make sure to add extra to her food.

You're doing all the right things. Bloodwork is never a bad idea and hopefully that will tell you that Jagger is fine.
 
Just out of curiosity, are you sure he's not getting water from another source, such as the big porcelain dog fountain in the bathroom?
 
Nope, the porcelain fountain (ha!) is not a water source for him.

I also put a couple of dog cookies in his water bowl and covered them up with some water. He did have to drink a bit to get to the cookies.

I'm hoping also that the fluids are another reason he's not thirsty?

I'll check out the thread ... thank you Ann :smile2:
 
Can you possibly try another bowl for his water along with his regular bowl.

Sometimes I do this for Mally when he is not drinking enough, he will try the new bowl then move over to the old bowl. This way he is drinking twice.

Also, a lot of times he will drink outside better in the yard. When I sit out in the yard with him I,also, bring a fresh bowl of water out with us for Mally.

When on a walk I bring a container of water. Mally will drink from the lid on it.
(the lid is a small bowl)

I hope some of these ideas work for you.

I will keep Jagger in my prayers. Please let us know how he is doing, thanks.
 
I feel so crazy getting so uptight over this, but after we lost Scout so suddenly, I am way sensitized to anything. I syringed pedialite and doused his dinner with water. He just has zero interest in his water bowl (tried outside, different places, different bowls). And he has not poo'd since yesterday noon.

We are going to take him in for blood work tomorrow afternoon. I just want to double-check that things are functioning as they should.

Hopefully things will work themselves out in the next day or so!
 
If you want to get his fluids up more quickly I'd suggest feeding him moist food. So you can give him tinned food or soak his kibble in water for 20min and give that to him. On the two occasions Deska had HGE I made up a chunky soup - basically vegies and meat boiled up.
 
I'd tend to agree with everyone. Let him get his fluids with food if he's eating well. I've already mad a broth from chicken parts (we call it "dog soup" :wink2:) when one of our guys is feeling poorly. Then gradually move back to the old routine.

Try putting a little liquid -- water or broth -- in a plate in a different location and see if he's receptive. If he'll drink that, the issue is the bowl, not the water.
 
Having been through multiple poop-tastic adventures with Olive, I can completely relate to your situation. I am sorry you (and your pup!) are going through it. It's definitely not fun.:no:

This last time, I was giving Olive the standard chicken breast and rice diet. I have one of the fuzzy logic rice steamers - it keeps rice at a food-safe temp for several days. I would spoon some rice on a plate, and then cut up the cooked chicken from the fridge while I waited for the rice to cool and little bit. The whole thing was still warm when I gave it to Olive. Less than five minutes after eating, she always had to poop. Normally, on her regular food, it would be a 20-45min window. I attributed this to the rice.

Now that she's better, I tried adding a little bit of rice to her kibble. It didn't result in the immediate need to go outside. Then I started adding warm water to her kibble. Ta-da! Success! I can add either just enough to moisten, or so much water that the kibble is floating, and Olive loves it. So, I think it's the warmth of the water.

Long story short: Try using warm water or broth. I use the test-it-on-my-wrist method to see if it's too hot. You could split the food into several smaller meals, each with lots of warm water, to get more fluids in your pup.
 
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