Drinking too fast

brittk

I am just curious if anyone else has this issue and what they have done to ease it.

This has happened two or three times now. Kaiya loves to drink, she probably drinks more than any other dog I have ever met. The problem is that sometimes, especially when she gets out of her crate (that has water), she drinks too much too fast and it makes her vomit. I don't know if its the excitement or the amount and speed at which she GULPS it down.
I know there are remedies for dogs who eat too fast, but what about drinking? I have been trying to verbally cue her..."easy" and to just lightly touch her chest and try to calm her.
Any suggestions?

Sangmort

Instead of giving her water, try giving her icecubes to lick, should make it harder for her to "drink" fast.

Fate was like this, but after coughing up water a few times he learned to slow down on his own. ~

shibamistress

I've had this problem with a lot of my dogs, and it usually (not always) goes away or at least lessens. My Akita puppy did it when he was younger (and he still will drink way way too much--esp. if there is another dog around as he tends to want to have ALL the water). My girl Shiba still does it on occasion, but only maybe a couple of times a year (she used to be bad as a pup with it).

I think they do tend to slow down as they get older, but the ice cube thing is a good idea in the meantime.

BradA1878

We have this issue a lot. I have no suggestion on how to prevent it, I just wanted to say that we have seen it a lot in NK pups

tjbart17

I think Koda had this issue too. He grew out of it. I know there was a thread on this. Hmmm....I'll have to check.

The ice cube thing would not work at my house because I exercise a lot with my dogs. I can't see them getting enough water from that nor would it work when we've been hiking for four hours and the ice melts.

Losech

Conker tends to have the opposite issue with water but will freak out if there isn't enough or any in his bowl, or if I take it away because he keeps dumping it and freaking out again.

You could try to rig up a cover that exposes only a little bit of the water's surface that makes her slow down, or sit by the bowl and stop her/take it away when she drinks too fast and let her have it when she goes slow?
I've never had this problem so those might not work.

CrimsonO2

Ice also weakens their bladder control. Think about how soon you needed to go to the bathroom after drinking an ice cold drink? Because your body has to spend energy to warm up the liquid before it can be absorbed into the body, much of it just passes through your system.

Why don't you try putting in a little bit of water at a time and have multiple drinking sessions with your dog (like shots)? That way your dog knows that the water comes when you say it comes, and that it only comes when they aren't so super excited about it.

Jesse

lindsayt

I have never heard of ice causing bladder weakness. Are there studies supporting that? Would be interesting if true.

Best thing I found for my gulpers: freezing the entire water dish.
Next best was soaking the meals with hot water to make a soup that they have to work around the food.

brittk

I'm glad she's not the only guzzler. She may be slowly learning. Last night after our long walk, she guzzled, but she must have stopped herself, as there were only "dry heaves" after, no actual substance I too worry that only ice cubes would not be enough water for her as we do lots of walking daily and tons of hard play in the evening.

I love that I have a place to come discuss my pup's bodily fluids Thank you, all!

CrimsonO2

Well not so much bladder weakness. Sorry poor choice of words. However, thank you for making me actually look it up. I had the right end result but just wrong reason.

Cold water is more readily absorbed by the system.
http://walking.about.com/od/fluids/f/coldwatermyth.htm
http://www.dietitian.com/fluids.html
http://www.ehow.com/facts_7458006_drink-water-urinate-more_.html

So, I was wrong regarding what the body did with cold water. It actually absorbs the water faster in the stomach and makes it more readily available in the intestine for absorption. I correlated that the faster your body absorbs water, the sooner it will have a need to expel excess water. I've had experiences where my puppy peed on the carpet around 20 minutes after chewing on her teething rag and eating ice cubes as compared to being able to hold it for 45 min to an hour after drinking all her room temp water out of her water bowl.

Jesse

tjbart17

Don't worry about ice cubes. Let Kaiya drink from her bowl and puke a bit. lol. She will learn.

BTW Koda ate a Salmon jerky last night so quickly that he got the dry heaves or choked or something. He was competing with Mei to see how fast they could eat.