Ice/ice water & Dogs

**DreamDoby** · 08-27-2007, 11:13 PM

This was sent to me and I thought I would pass it on in the heat that has been around:

Interesting....be careful with your dogs.
Hello Everyone,
I am writing this in hopes that some may learn from what I just went
through. We went to the Steel Valley Cluster this past weekend.

After showing we went back to our site/set up and got the dogs in
their crates to cool off.
After being back about 30min. I noticed Baran was low on water. I took
a hand full of ice from my cooler and put it in his bucket with more
water....
We all then started to get all the dogs Ex'ed and food ready for them.

After checking the dogs and thinking they were cooled off enough we
fed everyone. As we were walking around picking out the feed dishes
from the crates, one of my friends stated that Baran seamed like he
was choking. I we nt over and check on him and he was dry heaving and
was real droolly. I got him out of the crate to check him over I
noticed he had not eaten, he was in some what distress. I checked him over from head to toe and did not notice anything. I walked him around for about a min. when I noticed that he was starting to Bloat. I did everything I
was taught to do in this case. I was not able to get him to burp, and
we gave him Phasezime.

We jumped on the golf cart to take him down to the Show vet to find
out that he did not have a bloat kit, He referred us to the clinic
that was to be on call, but we found out that the clinic was closed.
After finding another clinic that was open we rushed Baran to that
one. We call ahead and let them know that we were on our way. They
were setup and waiting on us and got Baran stable very fast. After Baran was
stable and out of distress we transported Baran to AVREC were he went into
surgery to ma ke sure no damage was done to any of his vital organs. I
am very happy to say that Baran is doing great, there was not damage
to any vital organs, and he still loves his food.

In surgery the doctor found that Baran's stomach was in its normal
anatomic position. The Doctor and I went over the events of what happened up to the point of Baran's Bloating. When I told him about the ice water he
asked why I gave him ice water, and have I always did this.
I told him my history behind this practice and his reply was "You have
been very lucky for the past 15 years." The ice water I gave Baran cause
violent Muscle spasm in his stomach which caused the bloating. Even
though I figured his temp was down enough to feed and give him this
ice water his internal temp was still high. Dr. Vogf stated that giving dogs ice to chew or ice water is a big NO, NO; there should be not reason for them to have ice/ice water. Normal water (room Temp.), or cooling with cold towels on the inter thigh. This is the best way to help cool a dog.

I felt the need to share this with everyone, in the hopes that some
may learn from what I went through, I do not wish this on anyone.
Baran is home now doing fine. He does not like the fact that he has to be walked on lead in the yard to keep him from running. He hates not being able to go out and rough house it with the others, but is doing great.
So please if you do use ice and ice water, beware as what could
happen.

Sorry so long and excuse the mispellings.

Annelies · 08-28-2007, 04:15 AM

Well I had the same kind of situation.. I went to the beach with Zohran and after taking a walk we stopped to get a drink at the beachrestaurant. Because Zohran seems to have it very hot I give him a few icecubes from my drink. In the 2 hours that we where there he had about 6 or 7 icecubes. Zohran really like them and played with it. But when we got home, he had awful diarea overnight. His whole bench was full of it, and it took about 3 days till he was over it. Meanwhile I called the vet offcourse he told me that is was nog big deal and he would get over it. But after his illness caused by the icecubes I would never let him have that pain in his stomach again but after reading your story I deffenetly will never give him icecubes!

**brumwolf** · 08-28-2007, 04:40 AM

Guess i have been lucky all this time(did it yesterday too at the agility contest) "Lesson learned" no more iced water!!

dobes4us · 08-28-2007, 08:37 AM

Thank you for the info. No more ice water for my guys.

Riagogogo · 08-28-2007, 08:57 AM

WOW!
Thank you for this post......My parents give their Schitzu-poo ice all the time! I will make sure they know this! I've tried giving cubes to Rudi but he really doesn't care for them.....I'm glad!

LapDog · 08-28-2007, 09:16 AM

thanks for posting @-->--

hbwright · 08-28-2007, 09:45 AM

OMGoodness. I'm kind of freaked now too and so greatful for you sharing your story with us. I give my dogs ice all the time and the pup loves it as have all my pups. My older dog just licks on them but the others play, chase and chomp down. My neighbor also gives their dogs ice all the time including one dane who is very prone to bloat. I'll be sharing this information with them also.

I'm so glad Baran is okay. Maybe instead of ice give him a good piece of his favorite treat to let him know we're all glad he's okay.

**ddsalazar** · 08-28-2007, 10:17 AM

Thank you so much for the info!! I will pass it on to ALL dog owners.

alwayshadpets · 08-28-2007, 12:17 PM

Thank you for the info I will pass it on. My 2 do not care for ice, but I`m sure others I know do. Thank you again for sharing.

**Jenny** · 08-28-2007, 01:37 PM

Isabellle love ice cubes - She throws up even after eating just one. She got one the other day - it hit the floor & she was quicker than I.