Ever hear of water toxicity? Or acute water intoxication? I lost my beloved Jack to it last July 17. She was an early, avid and excellent swimmer for all her 11 lbs., swam every year in ocean, pools, lakes and large puddles. On 7/17 DH and I took her for a solo swim at a friend’s pool in honor of her 6th birthday. We played ball and swam for about 1 1/2 hrs. then started home, 5 min. away. Weezer kind of fell out of the car and was a bit bloated, so we trotted her to the yard to relieve herself-we’d seen her bloated before but she always just peed a bunch for an hour afterwards and there was no hint of any possible problem- she had lots of mileage in the water, and adored retrieving and swimming (big bro was a Lab).
Weezer peed but looked increasingly dazed, and we decided she needed to go to the vet asap. As we spoke this I looked at her, she was looking right into my eyes, as usual, but something was wrong. I waved my hand in front of her face and…no blinking. This is when I heard a crack in the universe. Scooped her up, and as I ran inside to grab my purse, she did this enormous stretch, from her toes to her nose…I’d seen that before, just before a dog being euthanized has passed. This all took no more than 15 min. max, from last happy paddle to death stretch. 15 minutes.
We rushed her to vet’s in a coma, but her heart stopped minutes after we got there. She had no chance.
PLEASE be aware that this can happen-more likely in saline or chlorinated water, and more likely in smaller dogs due to size. But afterwards I read of a Papillon who was just playing in a paddling pool for something like 10 min., and who was comatose for days and had lasting neurologocal damage.
WATCH FOR BLOATING! Weezer often got a little bloated, but the only problem that we, having never heard of water toxicity, ever encountered was that she would need to go out a lot for the next couple of hrs. In hindsight, I think that giving her a solo swim day sans brothers could have killed her-no competition for the tennis ball, as many retrieves as she wanted-she lept into the pool like a seasoned field dog-it was a sight to gladden the heart.
I’ve had dogs for 30+yrs., and have always had swimming dogs. Never heard of this, and neither has my Lab breeder with 30 yrs. experience as a hunting, field trial and show dog owner and breeder.
PLEASE tell anyone you know who has a swimming dog, or a dog who loves sprinklers or hoses about this. I have started this sad tale many times since last July 17th but haven’t been able to get through it. I know its now time to do so.
PS - The emergency vet thought she had a heart attack-did not believe it was water-related, and a large no. of friends who told their vets about Weezer also had never heard of/seen a dog suffering from water intoxication, much less a death. My vet, though, has no doubt. She told us of a 12 yr old boy in Canada last summer who went to the local pool w/buddies to cool off inthe heat. He never came home. He was on the swim team. Good swimmer. He ingested so much water horsing around that his brain swelled irrepairably.
RIP my baby girl, love of my life, whom even my vet called “the world’s best Jack”.
Sorry this is long but I hope this makes everyone aware of this horrible possibility.
