dogs drinking from rivers

[Patf]

Last Friday I read an item in the Depeche de Midi about the danger in letting dogs drink from rivers. They named the river Tarn and said a dog had been found dead beside it. The river evidently contains some unhealthy materials, but then all rivers do. Could be just scaremongering but worth considering. Pat.

[Mpprh]

Hi

problem is - dogs don't know whats good for them ............. or do they ?

Ours drinks, in order of preference :

Horse pee

Other dogs pee

Obviously stagnant water buzzing with mosquitos

Dirty puddles

Streams & rivers

Springs

From the sprinklers (untreated irrigation water)

Swimming pool water

Fresh water from his bowl ......... very rarely !

So far, he seems to thrive. They have different organs to us ?

If you have a known polluted river, I guess you have to keep him away ?

 

Peter

 

 

[Anton Redman]

I think you are mistaking drinking for testing/smelling.

Friend's small dogs order of preference was rain water, bottles water, piped water treated with filter and second chambre finally raw tap water.

[Corinne]

I guess that if you hear a report about a specific unsafe pond/river then there is no harm avoiding it just in case, better to be safe that sorry.  Not heard of any problems in my area but every river has its own unique additive sources.  Last year gypsies camped around our lake which made sure the water levels did not drop

Our dog will plunge into the nearest river/lake at every opportunity and firstly lay down and secondly drink about a gallon with no side affects so far.  When it comes to water in her water bowl however, she will only drink it if it is fresh out the tap, if it has been there any longer that 5 minutes she is not interested.

[Patf]

Our dogs have more or less the same preferences as Peter's when it comes to drinking water. I had a look again at the article and it applied to only one part of the river where they found cyanobacteries, whatever they are. There is another risk in drinking from puddles etc and that is from conacting ?leptospirose? which is spread from infected mice and rats, but if the dogs are vaccinated you're ok. Pat.

[Ron Avery]

Pat

You are right about leptospirosis, it is usually caused by exposure to water contaminated with the urine of infected animals, commonly rats. But I have never heard of an inoculation against it for dogs or humans. 

However before anybody panics, the risk of a dog getting it from a rain puddle are zilch.  The infected water has to be still, so unlikely to be a river and the likelihood of a puddle being infected unless there are many rats nearby is very  low.  In the UK it is also known as Weil's disease and those who may be affected by it such as canoeists, sewer workers and tube maintenance staff are informed of the risks and know to take suitable precautions, they also carry a card for their Doctor as Weils disease can infect very quickly and go from flu symptoms to the full infection in 48 hours.  It can be fatal but not in normally fit people.  A survey by the UK HSE found 8/10 farmers tested had had the disease without even realising it.

[phandm]

Yep- my black labs just the same she drinks water from any source other than her nice clean water bowl next to her food.  she'll sit at the kitchen window asking to go out into the gravel court yard and drink water from the bird bowl before she drinks from her own bowl!!!!

Still that's a dogs life for you!!!!::

[Deimos]

My dogs seem to go through phases. At least one does and the other copies. Until a few weeks ago, a water bowl in the house had been fine for several months. However, suddenly the river under the house seems preferable. They have gone through such phases before (preferring the river water or sometimes stationary ditch water) and I have no idea what starts it off (it certainly is not the heat as this phase started after the really hot spell). River is fairly fast moving (departure from mill race). However, I do worry a bit as I still have a few ragodins around (upstream) and they are said to carry Leptospirosis. Although mine are vaccinated against Leptospirosis (they get a combined vaccination Leptospirosis and rabies called Leptorabisin I think).

Ian

[Dick Smith]

Not the same, but when I was a kid we had a miniature poodle (I know) and it was crazy for water - as in jumping into and refusing to get out. It jumped into the Wandle one day and the result was a lifetime of skin complaints due to pollution. The river wasn't normally too bad but some numpty had just dumped half the output of a chemical factory into it. Now the factory (and the numpty, who I could name but won't) have gone the river is clear and fishy and we have herons back...

[Christine Animal]

Would you like an unpolluted poodle back too (I know).  Poodles were originally used for duck hunting, so maybe that's why he liked water. (Canard - Caniche).

Christine

[Dick Smith]

No thanks, I never liked the dog very much, and it wasn't as amusing as the Pekinese (which once caught fire). I must admit to not being much of a dog person except for watching sheepdogs.

[steve@sarah]

I dont know if anyone else remembers this, but a couple of years ago wasn't there a scare about blue/green algea polluting lakes in the UK?

Rutland water was one place- pets had died and when we visited there were signs saying not to let dogs in the water because of the algea.

I think it was caused by nitrogen polution and then hot weather causing an algea "bloom".

  

[Deimos]

I remember it and it was not only a “one off”. A couple of years ago there were signs up by the Thames round where I lived telling people to “keep their dogs out”, etc. due to the algal blooms. At the time the river flow was very very slow.

Ian

[Dick Smith]

We have had that in the ponds at Carshalton, but no messages about dogs! A lot of the waterfowl seem to decamp at those times.