NOTE: Whenever you see any symptom in your pet, western medicine wants to go straight to disease. But that’s not logical! Although, it does make the western medicine system a lot more money to immediately assume illness with heavy water drinking instead of looking at the obvious. So let’s look at the obvious.
 
Most dogs drink an excessive amount of water because most dogs are fed kibble. Low quality kibble. High-quality kibble. It doesn’t matter  (We could argue if there is even such a thing as high-quality kibble.)  There’s more salt in kibble than vitamins and minerals. That is for a reason.
.
Look at a piece of kibble. It’s hard as a rock. Dry as a desert. All moisture has been removed. So how is the body going to turn it back into something that it can digest? It starts with water. So with the salt content as high as it is in kibble, it drives dogs to guzzle water so they can rehydrate the kibble in their intestines so that they can digest it.
 
That is the number 1, 2, and 3 reason why dogs (and cats) drink an excess amount of water.
Let’s keep our focus on conventional pet food. Kibble and canned pet food is what I mean by conventional. Another reason why animals drink an excessive water is most of the ingredients in pet foods are illegal for human consumption.  This means,  to various levels,  there are actually damaging to the body, even toxic in some cases. Powdered cellulose is an incredibly common ingredient in many pet foods, canned foods, and those overpriced prescription foods. Powdered cellulose. That’s right. SAWDUST.
 
How about the fact that there are legally defined amounts of heavy metals? Mercury, lead, arsenic, cadmium, and zinc. Defined. Legal. Amounts of these heavy metals.
 
All these things are gonna make a dog drink a bunch of water. He/she wants to flush the toxins out of his body.
 
But what about animals eating real food?  I’m not talking about that fake “real” food that looks like a giant tube of bologna. That fake “real” food has even more salt than kibble. And it contains carrageenan as the number eight ingredient. Carrageenan is linked to cancer – no wonder dogs guzzle water when drinking that fake “real” food that in reality is low quality bologna.
 
So, real food… I mean fresh food.
There are different levels of fresh food. However, normally I expect water consumption to decrease dramatically when dogs and cats switch from conventional pet food, kibble or canned, to fresh food. But in a few cases they don’t.
 .
This still does not mean disease. There are a few pet owners who are trying to make everything nice healthy, and clean in their pets life, which is awesome. But I don’t agree with distilled water. I think it is necessary that there are healthy minerals in our pets water. And that’s where we talk about the next animal on this list – the one who still drinks a lot of water even after being switched to fresh food.
 .
Dogs who drink a lot of water on fresh/raw might actually need electrolytes added to their water. So here’s a weird science fact: mammals (humans, dogs, cats, etc.) eating a low carbohydrate diet may need extra water because low carb keeps insulin low and low insulin tells the kidneys to secrete more water and sodium. And the net result is increased thirst.
 
Did you catch that?
 
Seems a little odd, doesn’t it?
 
But there’s some good research in humans who have experimented with low carbohydrate diet. And the science shows it and the normal physiology of the body completely supports it. If you don’t eat carbohydrates, you don’t stimulate a lot of insulin production. When insulin is low, the kidneys flush out more water and salt.
 .
This is interesting. Bodybuilders know this. Bodybuilders typically eat very low carbohydrate diet. But just before a competition they will eat some carbohydrates so that they look fuller. Puffier. And this is how it works. They eat carbohydrates, their pancreas produces insulin. The insulin tells the kidneys to retain extra water and salt. Therefore, the bodybuilders eat carbohydrates to retain water.
 
The tricky part becomes how much salt to add to animals diets. I’ve already written a post about how no salt is the wrong way to go! 
 
So here is a little bit of scientific logic. 
 
If your dog or cat is still drinking a lot of water in spite of switching his or her diet to fresh food, let’s add some electrolytes to his or her life. You can add a little bit to the water. You can add a little bit to the food.
 
I do not like many products marketed for pets. Any of you who actually knows me in person knows that. There’s an extra extraordinary amount of crap that’s put into supplements for dogs and cats. I’m trying to help them get healthier, I don’t wanna put in unnecessary junk.
.
So I stole a recipe from my personal electrolyte company. This is not a paid endorsement. But currently, until they go changing something of course, I use the raw, unflavored LMNT. (I get headaches from Stevia. I don’t use Stevia. And I really don’t think animals need the sweetened, artificial flavor. You do you if you think that you (the human) need sweetened, flavored water.)
 
So let’s work through the math.
 
This recipe is provided by the above mentioned electrolyte company. People can make it at home. You don’t have to buy the cute little packets.
 
In 1 to 2 L of water to be consumed by 150 pound human, mix in:
2500 mg sodium chloride 
385 mg potassium chloride 
390 mg magnesium maleate
 
I probably drink two of these a day.
 
I’m sedentary. I might drink 4 to 6 glasses of water a day.
 
OK, so that’s for a human now. I have to translate this into pets.
 
Take the above recipe (or buy the packet) and mix into 2 L of water. 
Start by putting a little splash of this mixture into the water dish.
The next day, double the splash.
The next day, double it again.
Go slowly. Because if you personally have tried adding these electrolytes to your water, initially, it tastes super salty. eventually, you get to a point where you actually desire the salt.
 
So slowly increase your electrolytes until all of a sudden your water guzzling four legged friend is no longer guzzling water.
 
In really hot weather, when my dogs have been outside running around hard, I have no difficulty adding some of these electrolytes to their water. And they don’t make a face. They don’t mind it at all. 
 
Can it be overdone? For sure! Everything can be overdone. If you mix the above recipe in a quarter cup of water, there’s gonna be a problem. On the other hand, if your pet eats Play-Doh, especially the homemade kind, you’re gonna have a water problem. 
 
OK… Let’s not forget that all of this is assuming a healthy animal . 
 
And if you want me to briefly hit on the obvious unhealthy reasons why a cat or a dog would guzzle water other than everything listed above: 
  • Diabetes
  • Kidney disease
  • Liver disease
  • Infection
And then some weird ones: 
  • Cushing’s disease
  • Addison’s disease
And I say weird because those last two are actually incredibly uncommon and yet veterinarians test for them left and right anytime a pet owner complains about their pet drinking a lot of water. I say you stop feeding them crappy food and see if the water guzzling stops before you test for a weird disease. 
 
And one final tidbit. Just because I’m saying don’t test for Addison’s or Cushing’s first, doesn’t mean I’m saying don’t do routine bloodwork. Absolutely. Do routine bloodwork. Make sure you don’t have any of the four common diseases (diabetes, kidney disease, liver, disease, infection). And if your pet is dealing with those. Deal with those issues. AND fix the food.
 
And when I get to the end of this piece and I look back at the title, it started with why does my dog drink the pool water. Is it because the pool is salty? Therefore, your pet is looking for some electrolytes. Is it because the pool water is actually highly filtered and it’s very clean therefore it’s a whole lot better than what most of us get out of the tap? Ask yourself these questions.
 
Still seeing patients in Tampa, Clearwater, and virtually.