Tobey is a 7 year-old Labrador retriever that doesn’t like water. He loves it. “I put the sprinkler out in the yard for him, and he goes nuts!” said owner Ellen Jones of Charlotte, N.C. Tobey especially enjoys stealing mouthfuls of water as the sprinkler swishes back and forth. “He chomps at the sprinkler head and the water just goes right down his throat,” Ellen said. “He puts on such a show that neighbors walking by the house stop and stare in amazement.”
Ellen recently set the sprinkler out for Tobey, and it wasn’t long before she noticed Tobey was in trouble. Within 30 minutes, Tobey went from running around and chomping at the streams of water to vomiting and not being able to sit or lie down comfortably. Ellen was especially alarmed at the size of Tobey’s stomach, which had become swollen from consuming so much water. Since Tobey has a history of bloat, a condition in which the stomach becomes stretched and even twisted from excessive gas or fluid, Ellen didn’t want to take any chances and took him to the veterinarian.
Tobey’s veterinarian took X-rays and performed an exam, gently pushing on the dog’s abdomen to determine the seriousness of his distended belly. Tobey was lucky: his over-indulgence had not resulted in water poisoning or bloat. The Lab was sent home a few hours later with a prescription for rest, and Ellen was advised to keep water out of Tobey’s reach for the rest of the day.
“It sounds silly, having a belly full of water,” Ellen said, “but it can be just as dangerous as over-eating.” Sadly for Tobey, his days of running around and drinking from the sprinkler are over. “I had to put the sprinkler away,” Ellen said. “We won’t be doing that exercise anymore.”
11:00 pm
My beautiful little Jack Russell terrier loves water too, but what she really loves is ICE!If I have an icy drink, she wants me to feed her pieces of ice with the long iced tea spoon, and she crunches them up just like I do.
11:01 pm
My Doberman, Chaney, loves the Rainbird sprinkler in my horses round corral. He jumps and has a hayday with the water. I didn’t know what was going on with him because he looked bloated and I was very concerned because I had lost my Rottie to cancer (bloating from the tumors and bleeding in his stomach). It took me two days to figure it out with Chaney. Now the sprinkler is on, Chaney is back in the yard! BTW, he loves ice cubes too!
11:01 pm
my rottie mix, louie, LOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVES water too. He’s been known to drink too much as well. I didn’t know that they could actually hurt themselves so this was a good story for me to read. Louie likes to chase sprinklers too. I’m glad Tobey is feeling better.
11:02 pm
I am glad Toby is OK. My dog loves to swim and usually takes in a lot of water too but I never new it could be bad for them to have too much water. This was a good lesson for me. I noticed Toby has a front clip harness on. Does that work for pulling? I have tried everything for my Golden Retriever and even after expensive dog training, all collars and harnesses and Gentle Leaders work for a short time than pulling starts again. If you can reply to redgold3@comcast.net, I would appreciate comments on what has worked for big dogs. Thanks.
11:02 pm
“ADORABLE! We have a 2.5 year old pit/choco lab mix who goes NUTS over the water…I also didnt know about consuming too much of it!
@Linda – we have a front clip harness (the gentle leader brand) and it stopped Brutus’ pulling. We still use it, but its stopped the habit, and we tried EVERYTHING else.”