How Much Water Should a Dog Have Daily?

Posted by Dr Sam, On 9 Jun, 2023 | Updated On 24 Dec, 2023 No Comments »

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Water is certainly the most essential nutrient. This common substance is commonly overlooked when considering a dog and all other animals’ daily nutrient requirements. It is vital to the functioning of all living cells. In this post you’ll learn the amount of water your dog should take for health and wellness.

Water should be the #1 consideration because no amount of nutrients will be utilized without an adequate amount of water. Your dog can survive the loss of 90% of her body’s fat and over 50% of protein. However, your pooch will die if she loses about 13% of her body’s water. These are the same with all other animals.

The body system of your adult dog contains about 60% water (Gaebler and Choitz, 1964). The water content in your puppy’s body is higher than 60%. The body has a limited capacity to store water, and water deprivation causes death much more quickly than does deprivation of food.

As dogs and all other domestic animals often have restricted access to water, it is imperative from a management view that you know what dog daily water requirements are. From a health perspective, it will help you to quickly know the health status of your dog from her voluntary water intake.

How Your Dog Gets and Loses Water

Your dog gets water in liquid form, from food, and as a result of oxidation of hydrogen during metabolism. The latter is known as metabolic water.

Oxidation of 100g protein gives about 40g metabolic water, 100g carbohydrate gives about 55g metabolic water and 100g fat gives about 107g metabolic water.

NB: Generally, 100 kcal of energy metabolizes to give about 10 to 16 g metabolic water. Hence, a dog consuming 2,000 kcal ME per day may derive 200g to 320g water from body metabolism.

Water gain is balanced by water loss. Water is lost mainly through the urine, lungs, skin, and feces. In the nursing bitch, a large amount of water is secreted in the milk.

What Amount of Water Your Dog Needs?

Under normal conditions, the body water content is remarkably constant. Therefore, water intake plus metabolic water must balance water release.

Daily water requirement and voluntary daily water intake of your dog will depend on many factors. It is important to note that water intake will need to increase to make up for any increased water losses.

The daily water requirement in milliliters (ml) for a healthy dog is:

20 – 70 ml per kilogram (kg) of body weight.

The range is for a sedentary to a working dog.

For instance, an active working dog of about 20 kg (44 pounds) will need about 1420 ml of water per day. While an inactive sedentary dog of the same body weight needs less water.

Factors that Influence Water Consumption of Your Dog

The following factors will make your dog consume more water than required under normal conditions.

1. Dry Food: eating dry food like cookies and biscuits increases voluntary water intake of a growing puppy and inactive adult dog by 2 to 3 times the size of the dry food intake.

2. Amount of Physical Exercise: increase in physical exercise definitely increases panting (heavy breathing) and food intake thereby resulting in higher water consumption.

NB: Don’t allow your dog access to large amounts of water immediately after serious physical exercise. This is because of the dangers of water intoxication.

3. Environmental (weather) temperature: just like you, the air exhaled by your dog contains water. The colder and drier the outside air, the more water is lost by your dog. Dogs also lose significant water through panting in warm weather.

4. Medication: dog water intake will increase with some medications like cortical steroids as a side effect.

5. Illness: sicknesses like diarrhea and vomiting increase water loss and hence lead to higher water consumption. Problems with the kidney in concentrating the urine will also increase water intake of your dog.

NB: All things be equal, over-consumption of water by your dog is a sign of ailment and it is advisable you consult your vet.

How to Develop Good Drinking Habit in Your Dog

To encourage good water taking habits, your dog should be given free access to water. The water must be measured.

Always give sufficient water to your canine companion a few hours before physical exercise. Then give a wet feed after the run. The wet food can be cookies in a pint of water.

When the weather is cold, give warm water to your dog.

NB: dogs enjoy warm water in cold weather, just as you enjoy a hot drink.

How to Know If Your Dog is Well Hydrated

You can check your dog’s hydration status by observing her teeth’s gum and skin.

By Skin: lift up the skin at the shoulder with your five fingers. A tent (i.e. a cone-shaped lifted skin) is formed. If your dog is well hydrated, the tent should collapse within one to three seconds.

By Teeth’s Gum: press on the pink area of your dog’s gum. A white spot is made. The white spot should disappear within one second or less if your dog is well hydrated.

Your dog is probably be dehydrated if either of these processes takes a longer time. Depending on the severity of the problem, intravascular fluid supplementation may be needed.

Water Toxicity in Dog

Over consumption of everything has bad side effects. When your pooch drinks water more than required, she is at danger of hyponatremia. Hyponatremia is over dilution of sodium in blood. 

Symptoms of hyponatremia include:

• Headaches
• Confusion
• Nausea and bloating—stuff

Surprisingly, the symptoms are the same as the ones for dehydration. In critical cases, hyponatremia can result in organ failure, seizures and even death.

What Over-Consumption of Water Tells You About Your Dog

Is your dog drinking more water than usual for his size and level of activity? The condition is called polydipsia – an abnormal, excess thirst. This is a sign that your dog may be having one or more of the following ailments:

• Diabetes Mellitus (See homemade food for dog with diabetes)
• Hypercalcemia – high blood calcium
• Kidney Failure
• Cushing’s disease – condition with excess hormone production.
• Pyometra – infection of uterine in unspayed females

These ailments are progressive and complicated. It is advisable you see your vet before they cause irreparable damage.

NB: Never limit your dog’s access to water in an effort to reduce her fluid intake. This is because the restriction may well lead to dehydration that will make her condition worse. So, give her free access to water however make sure it is measured.

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