Dog not drinking water

[CharlieH89]

My 8 year old Labrador hasn’t drink water for the past 7 days or so.
He is perfectly ok. Eating well. Going out for walks ok.
My wife has gave him some milk in that time to see if it has just been the water and he has drank the milk.
Since yesterday I have been filling some of his bowl with a bit of water then putting his wet food over it and he has been drinking/eating it but we have just came in from a good walk in the local park, gave him fresh water and he hasn’t entertained it.

Would this be a concern to anyone? Should I be taking him the vets?

[bexVN]

I assume this is out of character for him.

Have you recently changed his food, maybe one with more moisture in it? He would HAVE to be getting moisture from somewhere.

Humans and animals cannot survive without any type of fluid for more than 3 days without severe detriment to their health and this would be noticeable.

Is he urinating normally?

It could be a behavioural link but to rule out medical then testing his urine would be a start.

Are his gums moist or tacky-dry? If tacky then this suggests dehydration.

I would have to advise a vet check because there is no explanation as to why an animal would stop drinking unless at end stage of a disease and obviously he would be a lot more sick if this was the case (or behavioural and you can't go down that route really until a medical reason is ruled out)

Maybe try bottled water and in a different dish but don't make a fuss when putting it down for him.

Measure how much water you put down and re measure the water 12hrs later obviously you would expect it to be less. Average water intake (Inc moisture in food) is 50ml/kg/24hrs so a 30kg should take on board 1.5l fluid per day approx.

[CharlieH89]

Thank you for the reply Bex.
I will put some bottled water into his bowl and see if he will like that.
We have tried him with our filtered water out the fridge which he didn’t bother with.

His gums are moist but he has been drinking some milk and also the water that I’ve been adding to his wet food in the past day or so.

I’ll give it a day or so with the bottled water in hope that he may start to drink again then a trip to the vets it will have to be.

Thanks so much.

[Saleen836]

When I had my Lab she wouldn't drink water out of a bowl/bucket but milk would be gone in no time at all, you might try turning on a hosepipe and see if yours drinks from the hose, mine did and turns out she just preferred running water to drink

[bexVN]

Change the bowl and raise it up off the ground if it isn't already

[CharlieH89]

Thought I’d update this.
He’s back to drinking water now normally

[dhutch]

Very glad to hear it.

Any the wiser as to why, or just one of those things?


Daniel