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Sharing an idea that worked to help hydrate

GraciesMom

Well-known member
Gracie sometimes does not drink as much water as she should in this hot weather. She will chew ice cubes but not with great interest unless super thirsty. End result was getting a tad dehydrated. Well....We have an old ice shaver that we got out and now give her a bowl of the shaved ice after walks and active playtime. She LOVES it. Stuff is just like snow and we no longer have to bang on ice to chip it. She did not love the chips we made nearly as much as she loves the "snow" from the ice shaver. We also use the snow to help cool her off by rubbing some on her fur after outside activity.... she likes that too! A similar shaver is just $18 from Amazon. We also are now using it for cocktails and icy drinks for us during these blistering hot days. Now wonder why we put it away in the first place!
 
Just tried this with Tess. She just kept licking the ice cube..Not actually eating it. Found shaving it with a cheese grater not much good. Gonna have to get your thingy wotsit from Amazon I think.
 
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Hi Deb

Good idea ,my lot have always enjoyed ice cubes but now I buy three large Honeydew melons every week and cut them up, or actually Dawn does cos as
she thinks I am a man I am toatally incapable of doing it so I dont disagree with her ,back to the melons we cube it part freeze it then keep it
in a cold fridge and give them some after walks or just when they seem hot .Mentioning hot we are forecast 20 deg C on Sat and on Sun a mind blowing 25 deg C how will we manage.:eek:
 
Thanks Robbie...lots to process here

This is interesting information but confusing.....several vets and artcles recommended tiny ice chips as long as not a lot of it at one time (I only give her a couple of tablespoons at a time and is more like snow...no real chips). And do not provide it right after she eats or when she is still too hot. I do rub her down on the fur with the ice chips to cool her off. The vets said ice chips slow down the fast gulping of water, which they said was the greater danger. I thought the major issue with bloat was the combination of food, drinking water fast (cold or not) combined with heat or too much activity. But, I will keep an eye on this. Would love for Pat to weigh in as I have never heard of cold water itself being an issue. So I may have to chose between dehydration or a cold water spasm??? Yikes!!!
 
Something a friend of mine does and I am considering after a hot agility weekend is mixes a bit of yogurt and chicken broth in with her Golden's water.
 
More research that I could find....

I was so shaken up by the story that I went to Google and made some calls to NC State Vet School and my holistic vet. That story about the dog named Baran has sure made it rounds... came up several dozens of times with Google. Here is what two online vets had to say about that story and feeding ice water/ice.

http://madmikesamerica.com/2010/07/critter-talk-the-internet-myth-of-ice-water-bloat-in-dogs/
http://www.petplace.com/dogs/do-ice-cubes-cause-bloat/page1.aspx

I also called my regular vet and a holistic vet and they said that it would be very rare for a dog to react just to the fact that the water was very cold. More likely it was other factors combined with the water, such as gulping too fast after being very active or having too much air in tummy already. However, any dog could have a special condition, especially those prone to bloat, that could make it easier to trigger an unusual event.

Even so, they advised that dogs should not get really cold water or ice right after coming inside from hot weather....but they also should not be allowed to gulp down any temp water after major activity or meals. They advise me to cool Gracie down when she has gotten hot and then give her small amounts at a time. They both said that ice chips in small amounts is actually BETTER than letting a dog go at the water bowl if they tend to gulp quickly. As to after meals, they both said same thing again.... large gulping of water (cold or tepid) is not recommended. So small bits of icy water after dinner is okay, but not a lot. They do not know any reason why ice or ice water generally would be bad since dogs in the wild did get water from ice and snow in winter for thousands of years.

If others have different vet recommendations on this, please share it because I do not want to create health issues for Gracie or other dogs here on the forum.
 
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