Complications of dehydration?

Question

My 10 mo old puppy dumped her water bucket early Saturday morning. I slept late. I checked on her in the afternoon, found the tipped over bucket. She was clearly dehydrated ang going into shock. Low temp, muscle tremors... the whole thing.

I got her to the emergency vet pronto. They gave 1 liter subQ fluids. (for a 24.4lb dog) and Rebound (liquid diet) to go home and instructions to offer tiny amounts of water and food frequently.

She won't touch the rebound. Took 1 lick of an egg and ate 1 bite of food. I know a healthy adult dog can fast for days with no ill effects, but this is not a healthy adult dog. She is visibly loosing weight.

Her normal behavior is crazy-hyper puppy. She is refusing to get up, but is able to... very slowly...

We're going into the vet first thing tomorrow am for additional bloodwork - so don't bother saying "take her to the vet."

Any experiences on complications from acute dehydration?

Bruce - Get a grip on your sobbing bleeding heart. My dogs are performance stunt dogs. I was out trainings my 2 adults this morning - puppy gets trained in the evening. I'm USDA licensed and my home, dogs and records are inspected several times a year by my vet, animal control and a USDA inspector.

Bruce - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC6qy_AnCGw

Friday night, I trained until 11:00pm and then gave them all their PM meal. I got up at noon on Saturday. (In summer I stay up late and get up late, I get more training hours out of the day. Temperature + humidity = 100 degrees or more = no training)

I trained the 2 adults until 4:00pm when I checked on her. So she was without water for up to 18 hours. (that's assuming she dumped it out immediatley after she ate.)

The vet though it was odd, checked for parvo and lepto.

The pup has always had a hard time drinking water and has spent most of her life mildly dehydrated. I have to put vanilla pudding in the water half the time to get her to drink.

The vet was not concerned about it since I don't feed dry foods.

Mikecujo - dogs loose 6% of their body weight from water loss before thirst is triggered. An acutely dehydrated dog vomits any water given. (Thus the treament being subQ fluids and and anti-vomiting med that I don't remember the name of.)

The vet was estimating that she had lost 8 - 9% of her body weight. (I'm recalculating based on how much fluid was given.)

BTW, the fluid is sufficient for 36 hours. She hasn't absorbed it all yet. So she has until 5:00 tomorrow morning before she needs to drink anything.

Answer 1

Considering the fabulously unhelpful answers you've had on here, I'd ignore Yahoo in this instance and stick with what your vet thinks, he sounds pretty good. For my two cents, I'll just add that this sounds like there's more to it than just general dehyrdation - for one thing it isn't normal for a dog always be dehyrdated for lack of drinking, they regulate their water intake IF their kidneys are healthy.

Chalice

Answer 2

Some dogs dehydrate quickly but rebound very slowly. I rescued a chow mix when she was 6 months old & she was having seizures from the heat. After she was treated at the vet's, it took her probably close to a week to get back to eating & acting normally. When you see the vet, ask if pedialyte (something for children) would be helpful. I gave mine syringes of water & chicken broth for the 1st day. And after that, she was mainly wanting liquids more than food so I wet her food (so it was like a mash) and she would drink some of it. And keep her indoors out of the heat. Now that she's had this problem, she'll be more sensitive to the hot weather so you're gonna need to make her an indoor dog with outside play time supervised. My dog is 12 yrs old now & if it's over 75 degrees, she can't tolerate outdoors.
I hope she feels better soon. Just don't expect it to be a fast recovery.

Answer 3

I don't know if there are complications but I did give my dog Pedialyte (make sure it's the plain, unflavored type) when she was recently ill and dehydrated. It's used to prevent dehydration in human babies/children and you can find it at any grocery store in the USA. It's a clear liquid that looks like water. I asked the vet how much I could give my dog. My dog is 9 pounds and full grown. I gave her 30 ml's a day with a syringe. I gave 10 ml's three times a day. I just squirted it slowly into the side her mouth and she drank it as I squirted. You don't want to squirt it in the mouth all at once because it can cause choking or possibly cause the fluid to go into the lungs. Kind of like when you swallow liquid and it "goes down the wrong pipe". Always ask a vet first and ask what dose would be proper for your dog. Pedialyte kept my dog hydrated until she was eating and drinking her usual amount again.

Answer 4

it's very odd that any animal would dehydrate in a matter of hours. especially with the symptoms you are describing. is your pup currant on vaccines, could be parvo or some other disease or other health issue. a normal 10 month old pup would be fine for 6 hours confined without water. i'm assuming it's not excessively hot or your pup would not have had a low temp. you can get an infant dosing syringe and try to force the rebound into her. my suggestion is either take her back to the er vet and have a complete check over, which i'm surprised they didn't do in the first place, ie...parvo test, etc....and hook her up to iv fluids. her behavior and symptoms are showing you really should make a return visit now to the er vet. if not you need to be on your vet's front door as soon as they open in the morning. and yes i'm going to "bother" with saying take her to the vet, because she is clearly not getting better and could be very sick. take her to the vet. this does not sound anything like acute dehydration, which i'm not sure is even an actual diagnoses. again you have a very sick pup that needs immediate veterinary not internet care.

Answer 5

I think that the dehydration is likely a symptom of another problem.. Dumped water pail and not getting a drink for a few hours.. Isn't likely to put a dog into shock, unless they were locked in a hot car or something like that.

Anytime there is dehydration the heart starts to enlarge.. The body basically takes care of the important systems. It takes away from other systems in order to keep the important life saving systems going.. Dehydration can cause all sorts of problems, as severe dehydration will cause the other organs to suffer..

Answer 6

From ur description it doesn't sound to me like dehydration, if she was with out water for what, maybe 6 or 8 hrs, she would be thirsty as hell, but shouldn't be dehydrated unless it was very hot or she was very active.
Good luck

Answer 7

OK, what was a 10 month old puppy doing outside by itself in the first place. Let me guess, you are one of these people that want a dog because they look good in the back yard? If you want a lawn jockey, then get one, the dog wants to be inside with you, that is where dogs belong, dogs are social animals and the best dogs are ones that feel like they are part of the family. Right now, if I had to take a guess, I would say your puppy doesn't want to live because what does it have to live for, it has no family. Wake up and get a clue. If you are ever stupid enopugh to get another dog, don't let this happen again.

Answer 8

i am sorry you are having complications with your dog hope she is ok i put pedialyte in my dogs water all year long so she stays hydrated maybe you could try that when your dog feels better if she doesnt eat her food maybe you could give her a treat.

Answer 9

Not sure, but wondering if you might want to see if she will drink gatorade?