We had quite a scare with Cooper on Saturday. She was chasing tennis balls in the lake for quite a few hours, and everything seem to be fine, until she lay down with the other dogs and a few minutes later her eyes were dilated, she had no muscle control and she was drooling like mad. At first I thought it might be over exertion. But we knew we had to get her down to the emergency vet, which was an hour and a half away. On the way it dawned on me that it might be water intoxication. She spent the night at the emergency vet with an IV and on Sunday she came home and was basically back to normal. They want her to take it easy for a few days but you can still swim just not so much. Basically while retrieving balls she swallowed so much water that she got her sodium balance out of whack. It’s actually a life-threatening condition, though by the time she got to the vet she was recovering somewhat and could walk ok. Her eyes looked normal but she was still drooling buckets. The vet said that she might recover without any additional treatment, but recommended that we leave her overnight with an IV to get her electrolytes stabilized. The next morning her sodium levels were normal and she acted pretty much like her old self. While she normally retrieves a lot of tennis balls at the lake she spent a lot more time this Saturday doing it, because there were more of our friends throwing tennis balls for her. There was really nothing to indicate that she had a problem, until it actually happened. We just have to be a lot more careful with how much time she spends retrieving in water, and also give her some breaks in between.
Glad she's ok. That's horrible. I've known a few dogs who've been really ill over the summer with this. I don't think it's really well known over here either.
I've seen a few warnings on FB groups recently and sadly a couple of dogs have died. So pleased Cooper is ok, must have been so worrying for you.
So scary...definitely something I worry about with Quinn. I read that having pedialyte (electrolyte drink for babies/kids) can help until you can reach a vet.
The vet said that pedialyte would not help at this point, and she probably would not drink it anyway. I wonder if some salty snacks like jerky might help? When I worked at a steel mill in Chicago, we used to have salt pills To go with the water for people that got really hot
She seems to be back to normal today. She actually swam and retrieved balls yesterday, but we limited her time and exercise. It was a $1250.00 lesson.
Be aware that this is a Fresh Water problem. Too much salt water creates a different condition, with high sodium. It is also life threatening. If your Lab is retrieving in the ocean, he/she needs plenty of access to fresh water.
