Not drinking water

Willow has never been a big water drinker but since recently having diabetes she was drinking a lot more. Since coming home from several days at the emergency vet with abdominal pain and dehydration she doesn’t want to drink. Only twice has she had a tiny drink of her own accord. We have been syringe feeding water regularly then waiting to see today if she’s drinking but she won’t. We are also putting water in with her food morning and night. Has anyone else had an issue with this? I’m concerned she will end up back at the vet with dehydration. Maybe not having to drink due to the drip over several days has affected her? she does have a bad tooth that they have her on antibiotics for and she will get it out when stable enough it it’s not stopping her from eating. Her tests were negative for pancreatitis.

 

Which tests did they do for pancreatitis?

 

Is she eating the wet food with extra water in it? If so she may not need to drink. I have only seen Mia drink one time since shortly after starting insulin and a wet food diet. There is so much moisture in the wet food plus the extra water added. She had stopped eating before you took her in, so the dehydration makes sense, but if she is eating now, and it is wet food with extra water, I do not think I would be worried about her not drinking extra water. Having fluids given the last several days probably has her pretty hydrated as well.

I hope they can take care of the dental issues soon. She will probably feel better once that is done.

 

If she has a sensitive tooth try using warm/er water. We've made the switch to all wet food and went down to only 3 water bowls, so much water already in the wet food. Has she changed food? Check the water content by %.

 

She had an ultrasound and a blood test. The ultrasound showed some abdominal inflammation but the blood test came up negative.

 

Do you know which blood test? It could be total lipase, SNAP fPL, or Spec fPL -- the three have different degrees of accuracy.

If the ultrasound shows inflammation around the pancreas area I would take that over a negative blood test, particularly if it was just the total lipase number.

 

Good suggestion about warm water. Thank you. We are also thinking of mixing some of the juice from her diabetic food with water. She changed foods just before Christmas but was drinking well then.

 

Not sure what the test was but will try to find out.

 

I wouldn’t normally worry but when we do the skin punch test she seems dehydrated and it is harder to get blood from her ear at those times.

 

So sorry your having the issue. No words of wisdom here just support and say that Willow is a doll!!! So cute, she look like her name.