Dog Park Concern

[killerz298]

Background:

I have been taking my 7 month old lab to the dog park for about 3 months now and he has never had a problem. Today he woke me up whining at 5:00am because he had vomited in his crate. I took him out and he had a loose stool so I sat with him awhile and gave him a little food. He was lethargic and I waited a little while to see if he was just tired from being off schedule. He seemed ok after 2 hours so I went back upstairs and came down 45 mins later and when he saw me he got out of his crate and vomited again. Now I was getting concerned so I took him to the vet who gave him an injection for the vomiting and did a rectal exam. He said to take him home and give a call at 4:00pm with his progress. At 4:00 he had diarrhea so the vet suggested some pills for that and to give him a special food. He said he thinks it is a virus as he has seen a few other dogs with it.

Question:

Here is my concern. At the dog park there are several stainless steel bowls set up for people to pour water in. As the bowls are chained to the fence/bench I assume they are never washed out with soap, most likely just rinsed out by people/rain. Since all the dogs drink out of these bowls if one has a virus it is likely that the others will get it as well right? I don't see a way to prevent my dog from drinking out of these bowls, even when I bring his own he still goes to them. There is no way for me to keep up with him and prevent him from using them and he doesn't respond to vocal commands very well yet. Have I just been lucky that he has only gotten sick once in 3 months?

What do you guys suggest? Have any of you experinced this situation and if so how have you dealt with it?

 

[Scooter]

Yes, I've heard dogs can pick up viruses from shared water. At our dog park, there is a doggy drinking fountain- I only let Zoe drink from that. If yours doesn't have one, I would bring a jug of water and bowl in your car and only let your dog drink from that.

 

[mrose_s]

you could try keeping him on a lead until his recall is good enough to stop him from touching the bowls

 

[dr2little]

I don't even provide community water bowls in classes. I have a small kitchen in the class and owners bring their own water bowls. There are just too many things that dogs can pick up from shared water bowls.

I never let my dog drink out of any water bowl that's been touched by another dog either.

I sure hope that your pup feels better soon.

 

[killerz298]

Yes, I've heard dogs can pick up viruses from shared water. At our dog park, there is a doggy drinking fountain- I only let Zoe drink from that. If yours doesn't have one, I would bring a jug of water and bowl in your car and only let your dog drink from that.

The question is how do I prevent him from drinking out of the communal bowls? Even when I bring my own water he still goes and drinks out of them. Even if he isn't thirsty, if he sees another dog take a drink, he goes and has to take a lick or two out of it.

you could try keeping him on a lead until his recall is good enough to stop him from touching the bowls

The way he plays this just isn't possible. He likes to wrestle with the other dogs and they all run around like crazy there isn't a way I can keep him on a leash/lead.

I guess I will just have to tail him and manually stop him from doing it until he learns if he wants to drink he has to come to me. What I REALLY need to do is work on the recall command so I won't have this problem but I need a short term solution as he HAS to get exercise or else he is a menace!


On a different note, my vet sold me some Hills Prescription W/D and said it would help with his stomach virus/diarrhea. I am very selective on the food I feed him (I use canidae) and besides the terrible reviews I saw online for this food, I thought it was VERY rough on their stomach to change what they eat without a gradual mixing in over a few days. When I realized this my vet had already left for the day. What do you guys think?

 

[drmom777]

Hill's W/D stops diarrhea because it contains masses of fiber, mostly from peanut hulls!! You can use it, but you could try adding fiber from another source, such as canned pumpkin or a little metamucil (unflavored) with an appropriate amount of water added to his food. I was told to give my dog W/D as well, but it has very few calories per cup, and he promptly started losing weight, which he can't afford, so I went with canidae with added pumpkin, and that went better. Did your vet test him gor giardia and other protozoa. That's what dogs have been getting from drinking puddle water in our local dog park. For that you need lab tests and then Flagyl.

Suzanne

 

[killerz298]

Hill's W/D stops diarrhea because it contains masses of fiber, mostly from peanut hulls!! You can use it, but you could try adding fiber from another source, such as canned pumpkin or a little metamucil (unflavored) with an appropriate amount of water added to his food. I was told to give my dog W/D as well, but it has very few calories per cup, and he promptly started losing weight, which he can't afford, so I went with canidae with added pumpkin, and that went better. Did your vet test him gor giardia and other protozoa. That's what dogs have been getting from drinking puddle water in our local dog park. For that you need lab tests and then Flagyl.

Suzanne

Yesterday he seemed like he was getting better. He was eating his food, had more energy and had some soft poops but not diarrhea. He was fine all day today as well with a little more energy until around 9:00pm when I went downstairs to see he puked up his dinner (I gave him the canidae). Now he is back to how he was with little energy. Any clue as to why the reoccurance?

I brought a stool sample into the vet for him to check out but he didn't mention anything about it so I assume it was negative. I will give a call tomorrow just to make sure, but I assume if there was a problem he would have called me. Should I be concerned or does it just seem like doggy flu? I read these symptoms could be a blockage but I am almost positive he didn't get into anything that could cause that. I watch him like a hawk.

Any suggestions as to how I can help him keep his food down/relieve symptoms?

 

[Aussie Red]

Giardia and corona virus' are the two big ones here. Never allow your pet to drink after other dogs or stagnant water bad bad bad. Is your pup vaccinated ?
He should not get it if he is. Maybe a very mild form goes away very quickly.
Did your vet say what the virus is ?

 

[Beanie]

I'd say if you don't have a reliable recall, and you can't let your pup play on lead... don't take him back to the park until he does have a reliable recall. I know that doesn't sound like much fun, but it's safest.

Dogs throw up to get things out of their system. I wouldn't worry about him throwing up unless it doesn't stop in the next day or two, or he seems to be getting dehydrated. Check for dehydration by doing this:
Pull up your dog's lip and look at his gums. Place your index finger firmly against the gums so that they appear white. Remove your finger and see how quickly the blood returns to the gums (they will become pink in that area again). This is called capillary refill time. If you do this when everything is normal, you will have a basis upon which to compare. The gums of a normal dog refill immediately, the gums of a dehydrated dog could take 3 seconds or so to return to their pink state.
Find more here: http://www.k9-quencher.com/Dehydration.html

 

[killerz298]

He seems to have more energy this morning and was quite hungry. I fed him half of what I would normally give him and I will wait an hour or two and then feed him the rest of his morning meal. He is drinking water normally so I don't think he is dehydrated but I will do that test.

He hasn't been drinking stagnant water as people are in the park every day and empty/refill the bowls and don't let them sit. As I said other dogs do drink out of them though which isn't good. He is 7 months old and has been fully vaccinated for awhile now. The vet didn't say exactly what the virus is, he just said he has seen it in a few dogs recently. If he throws up again today, I will call the vet and see how he wants to proceed.

As for not taking him to the park, unfortunately this isn't an option. Since he is a lab puppy you can imagine the amount of energy he has. I go to work all day and usually take him for an hour when I get home and also 2 hours on the weekends. If I do not burn off his energy he is unbearable to deal with. He is an absolute nightmare in the house at full strength. Part of this is that he needs more training but the rest is just restlessness and walks don't seem to do it for him.

I will just have to be extra careful while at the park and make sure he doesn't drink out of the bowls. If not, I don't know what else to do.

 

[killerz298]

Well he is finally back to his misbehaving self. Now all I need to do is deal with this water bowl issue so he has less of a chance of this happening again!

 

[Aussie Red]

Can you bring your own and run him at a part of the park where he can not get at the public drinking area ? I want you to be able to play him out. You do need to work on his re call but what about a long leash where you can let him romp but still have control as to where he romps.

 

[killerz298]

Can you bring your own and run him at a part of the park where he can not get at the public drinking area ? I want you to be able to play him out. You do need to work on his re call but what about a long leash where you can let him romp but still have control as to where he romps.

The bowls are all in one quarter of the park but he is so fast and always moving it is hard to keep up with him. As for the leash, there is no way I could really work that. he would be getting caught up in all the other people, chairs and dogs. He also likes to wrestle with the other dogs so I am afraid of one of them getting hurt.