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Old August 22nd, 2009, 09:42 PM
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luckypenny luckypenny is offline
Doggie Wench
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: St. Philippe-de-Laprairie, Qc
Posts: 11,812
Water Consumption...What's Normal?

Is there a general guideline for dogs?

All our dogs, with the exception of Toby, are fed raw so the only time I notice them drinking water is during and after playtime. Toby is fed 1 cup of Orijen Senior 2x per day with a cup of plain homemade beef stew/broth....no salt added. It's just beef and water. As soon as he's done eating, he drinks an additional 1 to 2 cups of water. He also drinks about 2 to 3 cups of water upon awakening in the morning and another 1 cup every two hours or so. I'd say on average, he's consuming approximately a little under a gallon per day. Is that normal? It seems quite a lot but I don't have anything to compare it to .

He's had two blood tests within the first week he came home (1 month ago), both showing elevated UREA, CREA, and ALKP. Not alarmingly so, but over the norm esp. ALKP. Everything else fell under the normal range. Stool exams came back fine.

I'm having him re-tested again on Wednesday to see if there have been any changes. Is there something I should be asking/looking for specifically?

I think I should add, he had orange liquid diarrhea his first two weeks here. There was blood present early on but it was attributed to nsaids which were stopped almost immediately...bleeding stopped as well. He's since had two rounds of Metronidazole, 500mg 2x daily...his last dose was 2 days ago. During the treatment, his stools were no longer liquid but, more of of a cow-pie consistency and still an orange-like color. Today, he's had the most formed stool, still soft, but the most normal he's had thus far.

I'm not terribly worried just trying to brainstorm here before Wednesday. Any ideas?
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