Hi Everyone,

Well after being diagnosed with hip dysplasia and arthritis in her hip, my dog, Misty, spends most of her time sleeping in her basket & every now and again hobbling around a little bit - nothing at all like her usual inquisitive, hyper self... she's only just turned 6 years old & we're waiting to see if surgery is going to be a good option for her.... anyway - the last couple of weeks she has been drinking next to nothing!! some days she hasn't even touched her water - I know she isn't great walking around at the moment so I've put her bowl right by her bed and every now and again pick her up and hold her to the bowl but she refuses to drink anything! sometimes if I scoop the water up into my hands she'll lick it out of my hand but that's it! she'll have a little bit of milk too (well she would drink alot of milk but I know it's not good for dogs tums? so she only has a bit...) I've heard goats milk is ok for dogs though?

Anyone have any idea why she may be refusing to drink? and anything anyone can think of to get her to drink again? if she's still doing this by Monday / Tuesday I guess it'll be back to the vets but we've spent over £500 last month at the vets so I want to avoid it if possible as we're totally skint & I'm on maternity leave so we're not bringing in alot of £ at the mo :-(

Hope all pets are ok after the trauma of bonfire night! we're lucky it's never affected Misty

Take care

Vicky x

Hi

This is odd. Is she eating from her food bowl OK? My thought was that maybe she is having trouble bending to drink but if she's eating Ok then that would rule that out. You might want to try elevating the bowl. Does she drink from puddles? I know a lot of pets that dont like fresh water, although again, if this is a new problem it wont be that. Also, dogs sometimes like to chew ide cubes, that would get some water into her.

My basic feeling thought is that if she is not drinking, she is not thirsty and that as long as she is not dehydrated then dont worry too much.

Another thought - have you changed her diet? Tinned food contains about 80% water so dogs that are fed only on wet food often dont drink much.

I hope all is well and you can find some relief for her HD. Hip surgery is traumatic but often a great remedy.I assume she is on anti-inflammatorys (sp?) that should be making her feel better.

Thanks for the reply Karen - yes we have recently changed her food actually! might be it thanks I would never have thought of that!

I did notice she was looking a bit dehydrated though - dry nose, skin not bouncing back etc so have been mixing goats milk with water and she's doing fine now - the reason we changed her food was because she'd stopped eating the dry dog food she's always had from a puppy, but she loves anything in gravy so she's now on pedigree chum meat & eating great.

She was on metacam (an anti-inflammatory) for the HD but we saw a specialist who told me to stop giving it to her as over time it causes liver damage and as she's only 6 it would be of more harm than good to her at this stage? (whereas if she were 12 it wouldn't matter so much as chances are she would come to the end of her life before it caused any major damage!) it didn't make any difference to her anyway though even after 6 weeks of her taking it.

Not even sure she can have the surgery as her hip joint is quite disformed, but it's killing me seeing her in so much pain every day - she yelps every time we pick her up (more as a warning than through actual pain - as sometimes she yelps even before we touch her!) but it's so sad that I can't cuddle her anymore :-(

Again, thanks for the reply :-)

Vicky xx