Drinking Water System- Excessive Water Consumption
We adopted Panda in September 2005... she arrived with housetraining issues, struvite crystals, severe separation anxiety, hip dysplasia. She had recurrent urinary tract infections and we did numerous tests to find the cause but to no avail. In February of this year, after additional tests, we gave the go ahead to open her up. A bladder defect called a Persistent Urachus was surgically corrected. http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm ... icleid=867 The bladder sutures failed requiring a second emergency surgery the next day. Panda just is not your typical sheepie... sigh. The surgery appears to have corrected both Panda's housetraining issues, struvite crystals and recurrent UTIs. We've had ZERO infections since the surgery... and as time passed the struvite crystals also disappeared. Then the dog food recall came about and we made some big changes in nutrition. We switched over to Eagle Pack, we had a Culligan drinking water system installed for the dogs on April 24th, we added some dietary supplements. Over the next 1 1/2+ months Panda began drinking excessively and urinating in the house again. She would need to go out about every hour during the first 5-6 hours of the day. We thought... here we go again. But we had blood and urine tests done and found nothing abnormal. We sat down and started eliminating things we had changed that might be a cause. Just one of the things we tried was lowering her Soloxine in case this was a symptom of too high a dose... though testing in March indicated levels were appropriate. Nothing we did made any difference. We made an appointment to talk about a trial of meds for diabetes insipidus. A couple of days before the appointment, we did the only other thing we could think to change... we went back to well water through the regular tap. Within about 24 hours her water consumption was back to normal for the next week. He turned it back on on Monday afternoon and by Wednesday Panda was again cherishing the water dish and drinking it dry at times AND peeing in the house. The softener is off and we're back to well water and normal water consumption. Culligan says that the system must filter soft water... it can't filter well water... and that there is no salt in the water that might be causing this problem. The other 5 dogs in the pack also drank a little more water but no where near what Panda was drinking. So is she simply drinking it because she thinks it tastes so much better? If anyone can provide any insight I'd appreciate it. I also posted this in case there is another unusual dog out there that is having "issues" and might be heading for life in the backyard or a shelter. Maybe try going back to well water to see if the situation improves. |
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| Sounds to me like you've got lots of sodium in that water... don't water softeners do their job by substituting salt for minerals? |
The water runs through 3 filters and Theresa at Culligan's national number said there will be no sodium in the water. When I told her what was going on and that I had to know for sure, I was referred to Consumer Affairs but of course the mailbox was full and I was disconnected. The second call to Culligan I got Barb. She indicated that no one at the national number knew anything technical about their systems and that they are a referral service only... now isn't that just peachy. 
So I talked to the health department and I'm going to have both the well water and the drinking water tested for sodium. After an $850 investment for the dogs I'd better discover that it's simply the water tastes so fabulous Panda can't control herself because this was a question we asked prior to installation. |
| Which model do you have? |
| According to Popular Mechanics:
Quote: Health Concerns
Hard water poses no health hazard. On the other hand, the sodium that remains in softened water may be a problem for those on sodium-restricted diets. Other people simply may wish to avoid the slightly salty taste of treated water. In either case you can install a separate water dispenser that bypasses the softener. You also can use potassium chloride instead of salt, although this costs about three to four times more. http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_jo ... 75126.html (On page 2) |
| More info:
Mayo Clinic wrote: Water softener: How much salt does it add?
Multiply "Initial Hardness" (grains per gallon) by 8 and you will have the approximate amount of milligrams of sodium per liter of water. http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/sodium/AN00317 Do you know what your initial hardness was? |
| Personally, I LIKE the taste of our well water... it is somewhat hard. We honestly installed the new system specifically for the dogs thinking we were doing a good thing because of Panda's past with struvite crystals.
It's the Good Water System by Culligan that we installed on April 24th... http://www.culligan.com/index.cfm/title ... id/70.html Jim just left to pick up the test kits. I guess I could also put down two bowls of water and see which one she drinks to see if the "flavor" is the draw.  |
| I don't have the hardness number though we have had it tested in the past. The kit from the county might give us this too... it's supposed to test for 8 different things including sodium.
Thanks Ron for all the facts and links provided. I'll go back and look through them. |
| Is it icy cold and particularly delicious, too? I know the colder the water, the more our guys will drink. Clyde will drain a bowl of ice water but with regular water, he doesn't drink so voraciously. |
Quote: Is it icy cold and particularly delicious, too?
That's the thing... it sits in a storage tank until it's needed. It's somewhat cool since the tank is located in the cupboard. Personally, I much prefer the taste of our cold well water but maybe she thinks this new water is super delicious? We honestly thought she had developed a serious kidney problem or diabetes but a medical cause has been ruled out (thank goodness). |
| I'm very interested in what you find out. I am betting that Panda just really loves the taste of this water and is drinking herself silly. |
| Ron, I believe the system here is a reverse osmosis system not a salt system. So sodium is not a concern.
The test of two waters is a good idea. Could be it just tastes better. Then again the RO system may be removing a solute Panda needs for bladder control. |
| They are using RO for filtering after softening, I think. That's my impression, anyway. |
| My fault... I failed to make something clear...
Culligan said the well water must first be run through the water softener, then through the drinking water system that has 3 filters so this is the way they hooked it up. I'll post again when we get the test results back. |
| I am just wondering if it is a different taste to the water and she is consuming more because it is different.
I know when we go to the farm with the girls, the water there is rain and spring water in the tanks, Kelsey I have to regulate the water as she does not stop drinking it when I put a bowl down. She had a few pee issues with over drinking when we were there, so now I regulate the amount she drinks when we are there. In Melbourne just tap water and she is not obsessive with the amount she drinks, just normal at home and a different water to what is up at the farm. So maybe it is the different quality in the water making panda drink and drink. |
Quote: So maybe it is the different quality in the water making panda drink and drink.
It could be Lisa! The water dish is in the kitchen which is next to my work room. I can tell by the way they drink who's at the water dish. When I'd hear her drinking, it got so all I'd have to do is stand up and she'd stop because she knew I was going to tell her that was enough. But I didn't supervise the bowl all the time. I kid her about being a "city girl" partly because she came from New Jersey but mostly because she doesn't like to get her feet wet and she poops on the concrete! I suppose there's a chance she originated from a puppy mill/pet shop. Maybe she grew up on city water? But she has come so far in past year and a half and her health has definitely improved since her surgery earlier this year. It's just hard sometimes to make sure your doing the right thing. |
| I agree with Ron that there might be something such as sodium or something similar that they don't necessarily disclose. I know that when I feed canned veggies with the water that apparently has hidden sodium or I think it might be nitrates mine can't get enough of it.
They also prefer their water fresh and colder and then tend to drink more as well. When Hannah was a puppy she drank excessively for a long period of time and the vet said at that time she was missing moisture in her diet so we had to give her more moist type of foods such as raw meet or barely cooked to replenish her moisture. It seemed to work. She is on Soloxine now but was not at that time. We didn't become aware of a thyroid problem until she was a couple of years older. Hope you find the answer. You are trying to be so good to them what a shame to have such an issue. |
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