My 5 year old french bulldog was diagnosed with attopic dermatitis at a young age.
At 2 he was diagnosed with IBD.
At 3 he was diagnosed with pancreatitis.
Many diets later, and many bouts later my vet thinks we can get it under control.
The current problem is, three weeks ago we started him on a low fat home cooked diet of boiled chicken breast and rice mixed with his Hills WD. He has not taken a drink of water out of his bowl since. After a couple of days, and out of fustrarion, I started to mix some of the broth with some water to try to get him to drink, and it worked. Now I can’t get him to drink plain water. I also soak the WD in water to make it easier to digest.
Could it be he’s getting to much water in his food so that he’s not thirsty? I’ve never in all my years being around dogs seen anything like this.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Tags: dehydration, diet
I’m not sure about what is going on with your dog, but one way to tell if he is hydrated or not is to do a Turger Test.
You do this by grabbing the skin on the back of his neck, pull it up, twist it a little bit, then let go.
If the skin goes down in 3 seconds or less then he is hydrated. If it takes longer then he is dehydrated and needs some water.