How long can our dog go without water?

Factual Questions
21

Not enough information is provided to answer the question. We would need to know how efficient the dog’s kidneys are, which is related to age, etc. I have seen cats in mid-stage chronic renal failure die after a door in the house blew shut and the feline was without water for 12 hours. A healthy dog I would expect to last at least 3 or 4 days, depending on the diet.

All that said, the dog will drink once it is dehydrated enough. Imagine yourself being offered water. If you are not thirsty, you may not drink. If you then mow the lawn in high heat and create a 5-8% dehydration state, you would drink even if the water wasn’t your fluid of choice. Take it to 10-12% and you would drink water knowing it was polluted with fecal matter.

22

Use the broth/soup since the dog likes it and uses the bottle. Try progressively diluting the mixture day after day until it’s plain water. You may get it down to just waving a bullion cube over the water before setting it out.

23

don’t ask already has 4 days. We’ll put you down for 3. I’ll take 2 days, based on the information that it’s a chicken-shit dog.

If you were a dog, you’d probably prefer the fecal matter.

24

What about using a chicken waterer, to keep the larger dog from gulping?

Like these

25

Body fat effects the calculation?
Does the fat make the animal more or less susceptible to failure from water deprivation?

26

So, it sounds like we can relax – he’ll drink before he does himself harm.

For some more background, he’s about thirteen and a half (the older brother is about fifteen or so). They were both at the vets within the past couple of months, and both had bloodwork done (it all came back without a problem).

Unfortunately, switching to a moist food isn’t much of an option, as they’re on the senior dry food our vet recommended. (Plus they’ve been free-fed all their lives, so changing out to scheduled feedings would be a bit over the top.) The chicken-waterer is the first thing that looks like a second viable alternative if this doesn’t work out – thanks for the link!

We work out of our home, so they’re constantly with us – we’re absolutely sure there’s no other water source he can get to. Due to other pooch-related management (er, pooch-related insanity), his movement is actually controlled 24-hours a day. During the day he’s gated in the office/den/wherever with us, during the night (or whenever we can’t keep an eye on him) he’s in his crate.

Also, we made the conscious choice to wait until the fall to make the switch so overheating isn’t a problem.

Anyway, thanks for the reassurances. Between yesterday and today, he’s taken a few swigs, finally doing so voluntarily and on his own (as in, he just walks up and takes some without us pointing or cajoling him), but it’s still not enough to keep him fully hydrated.

It’s been quite disconcerting to see him so clearly uncomfortable, but the gist of this thread has been whether or not he’ll actually hurt himself. We fully recognize the dog-training-us possibility, and are prepared to persevere until he fully gets it, but not if we were taking undue risks. It seems like no, he’ll suffer some, but not come to harm.

Now, about training the cats…

27

But in dog years, that’s next Wednesday.

Glad to hear that Fido is starting to cave.

Regards,
Shodan

28

ARRGH!!! I knew I’d miscalculated somewhere! :stuck_out_tongue:

Glad to hear he’s coming around. Persevere!