How to lead a corgi to water AND get it to drink?

Sssooo Olive has had diarrhea for the last two days (stool sample came back negative!) and the vet has her on a special diet for the next few days to try and harden her up, but I can't seem to get her to drink enough water. She also is ignoring ice cubes, which she normally LOVES. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Lynne Cerny on July 22, 2010 at 9:14am

Have you tried putting water in her food? That's one of the ways I get Sally to drink more.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Wally, Jessica, and Olive on July 22, 2010 at 9:19am

I'll try that, thanks!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on July 22, 2010 at 9:23am

Try dipping two fingers into the water bowl, make some noise to get her interest, once she got closer, place your wet fingers in front of her, she'll most likely lick them and proceed to drink water, you may need to stay there for a bit, so don't get up and leave until she's done.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Wally, Jessica, and Olive on July 22, 2010 at 1:01pm

Good trick, thanx Sam!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by John Wolff on July 22, 2010 at 1:25pm

Water is not left in the bowl if there's food in it.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Wally, Jessica, and Olive on July 22, 2010 at 3:48pm

We'll try this tonight, thanks!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Alison Prasavath on July 22, 2010 at 3:44pm

I agree with the other posts about putting water in with her food. When Noodles was sick and I had to give him a bland diet, he wouldn't drink out of his water dish either, so I started mixing water in with his food. That was the only way he would take in water. He did find it fun attempting to drink water out of a spoon, so I did that some times as well. Kind of along the same lines...after this past time of Noodles being sick (and me having to take him to the ER), he started not drinking out of his current water dish. Guess what I had to do? I put on my thinking cap and I changed to a different water dish and then he started drinking water again. I have not a clue why he decided he didn't like the other dish, but I got him drinking water again.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Wally, Jessica, and Olive on July 22, 2010 at 3:49pm

Haha, superstitious Noodle! I'll change her bowl and see what she thinks. Thanks!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Carla on July 22, 2010 at 4:03pm

You could also try putting a few tablespoons of low/no-sodium broth in the water bowl to make it tastier. Casey had terrible diarrhea a month or two ago, and wasn't drink any water at all for nearly two days. I got worried, so started adding a few tablespoons of broth to her water, and she starting drinking like crazy. When I took her in to the vet, she commented on how hydrated Casey was considering how much vomiting/diarrhea I had claimed she had had over the past few days. She said that she wouldn’t have thought she was ill at all, had I not told her. I gave complete credit to the flavoured water.

Just a note: Too much broth, or broth with too much salt, can actually work in the opposite direction and cause them to become more dehydrated, rather than less. The vet said it was fine, as long as it was quite diluted so Casey wasn’t getting a lot of salt; I was using low sodium broth anyway, and when I tasted the diluted water myself, I could hardly taste the salt. It mostly just smelled like broth, which I think is what enticed her to drink. Just be careful to dilute the broth quite a bit (just so it's flavoured and entices them to drink) or use a no-sodium broth (still diluted - the important thing is the water, not the broth!).