# Beware giving ice water or feeding ice cubes!



## Dieselsmama

This is something all dog owners should know. Even with the smallest breeds
need to remember never to give dogs iced or very cold water.

This was posted on another board with permission to cross post in the hopes
of saving another dog from having to go through this awful experience.

After showing we went back to our site/set up and got the dogs in their
crates to cool off. After being back about 30min. I noticed **** was low on
water. I took a hand full of ice from my cooler and put it in his bucket
with more water. (Note: I use a small Playmate cooler at ringside with ice
water in it also. Have for over 15 years now) I use small 2qt. buckets in my
crates. He had maybe ½ a bucket when I placed him in his crate after coming
back from the ring. We all then started to get all the dogs Ex'ed and food
ready for them.

I have an 18 foot trailer with AC and set up, as a rolling kennel it fits 7-
42" crates, and MY express Van holds 1- 48", 1- 42", and 3- 36", crates. All
the crates in the van have 24 " box fans over them. I had **** in his 48'
crate in the van because that is the place he loves to be. He loves to be
able to see everyone and everything. After checking the dogs and thinking
they were cooled off enough we fed everyone. As we were walking around
removing the feed dishes from the crates, one of my friends stated that ****
seamed like he was choking. I went over and checked on him and he was dry
heaving and was drooling. I got him out of the crate to check him over and
noticed he had not eaten. He was in some distress. I checked him over from
head to toe and did not notice anything. I walked him around for about a
min. when I noticed that he was starting to Bloat. I did everything I was
taught to do in this case. I was not able to get him to burp, and we gave
him Phasezime.

We jumped on the golf cart to take him down to the Show vet to find out that
he did not have a bloat kit, He referred us to the clinic that was to be on
call, but we found out that the clinic was closed. After finding another
clinic that was open we rushed **** to that one. We called ahead and let
them know that we were on our way. They were set up and waiting for us and
they got **** stabilized very quickly. After **** was stable and out of
distress we transported **** to AVREC where he went into surgery to make
sure no damage was done to any of his vital organs. I am very happy to say
that **** is doing great, there was no damage to any vital organs, and he
still loves his food.

In surgery the doctor found that ***** stomach was in its normal anatomic
position. The Doctor and I went over the events of what happened up to the
point of **** Bloating. When I told him about the ice water he asked why I
gave him ice water, and have I always done this. I told him my history
behind this practice and his reply was "I have been very lucky for the past
15 years." The ice water I gave **** caused violent Muscle spasm in his
stomach which caused the bloating. Even though I figured his temp was down
enough to feed, and give him this ice water his internal temp was still
high. Dr. Vogf stated that giving dog's ice to chew or ice water is a big
NO, NO; there should be no reason for them to have ice/ice water. Normal
water (room Temp.), or cooling with cold towels on the inter thigh, is the
best way to help cool a dog. How Dr. Vogf explained it to me was like this:
If you, as a person fall into a frozen lake what happens to our muscles?
Think about that, then compare that to your dog's stomach.

I felt the need to share this with everyone, in the hopes that some may
learn from what I went through, I do not wish this on anyone. **** is home
now doing fine. He does not like the fact that he has to be walked on lead
in the yard to keep him from running. He hates not being able to go out and
rough house with the others, but is doing great. So please if you do use ice
and ice water, beware as what could happen.


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## Erick Aguilar

Ah yes, that's why i only give Apollo two ice cubes after a walk.


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## Xeph

I must disagree with the vet....we advise puppy people to give their teething puppies ice cubes....I gave some ice water to my dogs on my trip down to TX...the water would get warm too quickly and the ice kept it cooler longer.

There are LOTS of reasons that dogs will bloat (In GSDs it is thought in part to be genetics). Just because this ONE dog bloated from ice water (if that is even really the cause) is not a reason not to give it SPARINGLY to a dog that is not overly hot.

I do not let my dogs eat for about an hour after they've done heavy running, and water is limited (and it is not ice water then), but when they are at rest and the water heats too quickly, yes, I give them ice water....but they do not guzzle it.

I also cool my dogs with cold sprays to the groin, belly, and feet.


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## FilleBelle

Huh...I would be interested in hearing more research on this topic. Not that I don't believe the vet in question, just that there seems to be a lot of anecdotal evidence that suggests ice cubes are not particularly dangerous. Perhaps they more more dangerous just before a meal?


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## Xeph

I can see how it would be dangerous, Fille Belle, if it had been right after a heavy run or what have you...that's like giving an overheated horse ice cold water...hello colic, down he goes.

But it should not interrupt the system of a normal healthy animal in such a volatile way.


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## Spicy1_VV

Xeph I totally agree. 

There are many benign things which could induce bloat in a particular dog, but would not be harmful to most dogs. 

I can't see the comparison of falling in ice cold water vs drinking ice water or eating ice cubes. If the Dr wanted to make a comparison it would be to humans drinking ice cold water and eating ice cubes, of which I know happens probably daily without issues. 

A dog being plunged in cold water would be more comparable to a person falling in ice cold water. Of course some dogs fair better in cold water then others and of course then people.


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## peppy264

Our vet says its Ok to give the dog ice cubes to mess with.

In the wild don't animals drink out of ice cold streams / lakes, eat snow, etc for water ?

People drink ice cold drinks after running around.

Working dogs will regularly jump into very cold water, which I realize is external, but still .....


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## winniec777

We took our dog to the e-vet because she threw up so violently after having ice water that it caused some bleeding. I didn't make any connection with the temperature of the water but the vet told us that cold water can cause vomiting and not to give it to her again. Not saying it's related to bloat, just that it did give my dog a problem.


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## Lolas_Dad

Do you think it was possible that the dog got an ice cube stuck in the throat and by the time the dog was taken to the vet it melted?


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## HORSEandHOUND

There were several studies done on this topic for horses during the 96' olympic games in Atlanta so that horses could better deal with the heat. Icy cold water is totally fine, so is taking a horse and dowsing them with water while they still have elevated respiration and heart rate. 
IMHO the vet needs to go back to school, and out of common courtesy you should remove his name from the story as well.


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## Kina_A

Lola's Dad, that's what I was thinking!


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## Nargle

I'm sort of confused. How do you define ice water? Room temperature water with ice cubes in it? Water cold enough to start developing ice cristals? Or water that's been refridgerated? I ask this because Basil won't touch ice or water with ice in it, but I give him water from our filtered water pitcher, which is refridgerated.


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## Xeph

That's interesting H&H....I was always taught it was a bad idea to give a hardworked horse uber cold water, and that room temperature was best.


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## Nargle

Xeph said:


> That's interesting H&H....I was always taught it was a bad idea to give a hardworked horse uber cold water, and that room temperature was best.


When I was in marching band our water bottles would get really hot under the sun, and it made a lot of kids throw up, so they started bringing coolers of cold water. I guess any drastic temperature change when the body is under stress can't be good.


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## Independent George

Wait a minute... do you guys mean to tell me that something on the INTERNET might not be 100% accurate?


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## trumpetjock

Independent George said:


> Wait a minute... do you guys mean to tell me that something on the INTERNET might not be 100% accurate?


Lies! The interwebz knows all!


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## Independent George

I'm suspicious, because the writing style sounds exactly like the stuff that is forwarded around in email chains and eventually winds up on Snopes. Unless you can find the original author was, I'm trusting my BS detector.

After Googling, the nearest thing I could find to a sourced article is this:



> *Can bloat be attributed to feeding your dog ice or ice water?*
> 
> *A: Not directly. If your dog drinks the ice water or eats the ice cubes too fast, there is a potential to lead to bloat.*
> 
> Bloat is a condition in a dog or cat when they eat too much or too fast, and suck in air with the food or water, allowing the stomach to fill with gas. Most often, dogs will eat their meal very fast and then run or play, sucking in air as they bounce around, filling their stomach. Some dogs will bloat by eating too much too fast. Regardless, the stomach fills with gas and is at risk for flipping, causing a GDV (Gastric Dilatation and Volvulus), which is an emergency condition and required immediate surgery. Dogs with bloat or a GDV can very quickly go into shock and if stretched too far can potentially slough part of their stomach, which is life threatening.


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## Renoman

Lolas_Dad said:


> Do you think it was possible that the dog got an ice cube stuck in the throat and by the time the dog was taken to the vet it melted?


Ice starts to melt the moment it enters the body. It would have melted long before they got to the vet.


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## Lolas_Dad

Renoman said:


> Ice starts to melt the moment it enters the body. It would have melted long before they got to the vet.


Well lets not get to technical here but if you want to do that the OP was stating he rushed the dog first to the show vet. So it is possible that the ice cube was not fully melted yet. Of course that would all depend on the size of the ice cube, the temperature of the dogs throat, the temperature of the air and the melting rate of the ice cube. Not knowing all those facts without actually doing a scientific experiment and actually being there we both could be correct 



> We jumped on the golf cart to take him down to the Show vet to find out that he did not have a bloat kit, He referred us to the clinic that was to be on call, but we found out that the clinic was closed.


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## tirluc

under normal conditions, ice/ice water is fine to give to your dog but when a dogs (internal) body temp (or any animal, for that matter) is up from exercise, stress, etc. it is recommended to give them only room temp water (drinks) and only in small amounts until the body temp is brought down....haven't you ever had your stomach cramp after drinking an ice cold beverage after a run or something? it works the same on dogs/horses/etc....ask any horse racer, they'll tell you the same thing....


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## Lolas_Dad

I bring my dog to the dog park. One particular dog park has it's own water and the other does not. The dog park with the water if I were to get water from it and put it out for my dog would be colder than the outside temperature because there is no such thing as room temperature cold water coming directly from a faucet. Now say my dog did some running around and went to drink the water that came from the faucet 1 minute ago, do you mean to tell me that its wrong to give my dog that water?


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## tirluc

the water from the tap is still going to be closer to room temp than the water from the fridge or water w/ ice cubes that have been melting in it......


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## nikelodeon79

We may be thinking of giving ice cubes to dogs in separate scenarios:

1) Giving a teething puppy ice cubes
2) Giving a warm dog ice cubes
3) Giving an overheated and/or hard worked dog ice cubes/ice cold water

Scenarios 1 and 2 are perfectly fine. Scenario 3 is probably not a good idea.



Xeph said:


> That's interesting H&H....I was always taught it was a bad idea to give a hardworked horse uber cold water, and that room temperature was best.


It is a bad idea. It's important to cool down a horse before letting it drink a lot of water, particularly icy cold water. "Room temperature" isn't necessarily a must, but it should not be ICY cold. IMO, there's a difference between cold and icy.



tirluc said:


> under normal conditions, ice/ice water is fine to give to your dog but when a dogs (internal) body temp (or any animal, for that matter) is up from exercise, stress, etc. it is recommended to give them only room temp water (drinks) and only in small amounts until the body temp is brought down....haven't you ever had your stomach cramp after drinking an ice cold beverage after a run or something? it works the same on dogs/horses/etc....ask any horse racer, they'll tell you the same thing....


I agree, though I think "room temperature" is debatable. In most cases, cool water would be okay, just not extremely cold water. When you think about it, "room temperature" could mean anything from 68*F to 80*F.


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## Dozi

Xeph said:


> There are LOTS of reasons that dogs will bloat (In GSDs it is thought in part to be genetics).


I agree there is a lot of different things that could have caused this dog to get bloat... not necessarily the ice water or ice... bloat could have also been cause by him drinking the water too quickly, drinking too much water before eating (whether it was ice water or not), as well as some foods contain citric acid as a preservative and that can cause bloat when the food are moistened. ( this would happened if he was fed too quickly after consuming the water)


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## Spicy1_VV

This is still up for debate it seems. 

Dogs also eat frozen meat. I don't think it was just because the dog had iced water that bloat happened (if this is a true story). 

As someone said this looks suspicious and reminds me of the other beware dog stories. (or even the other urban legend type things that get started)


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## Xeph

Indeed...I don't see why one would censor the dog's name....


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## KBLover

Cold tap water closer to "room temperature" than ice cold?

Just took the temp of the water from the taps here - 50-55 degrees. That's pretty cold, especially in contrast to the 100+ temps of an exercised/active dog right after the activity? Room temp is around 70-75 here, so it's about 20 degrees either way here.

Water in the fridge is probably around 38 if it ends up matching the temp of the fridge over time (most likely).

I would assume that "ice water" is close to that 40-50 degree range. Even if room temp water gets under 30 degree ice put in it, the water probably ends up almost fridge-temp water.

As far as the activity after eating, I guess I'm "lucky" that my dog will take a nap after eating and taking a drink (and trying to scavenge more food).

I wish we had more actual temps to go by than just adjectives. Maybe its the baker in me but things like "ice water" and "lukewarm" etc, I'd rather have the actual temperature. That can be measured. Adjectives mean different things to different people and situations.



Xeph said:


> Indeed...I don't see why one would censor the dog's name....


And leave the name of the doctor at that. Seems like it would be reversed.


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## Spicy1_VV

KBLover said:


> And leave the name of the doctor at that. Seems like it would be reversed.


And I thought the dog's name was **** all this time. lol


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## Wyatt0422

This is utterly ridiculous.


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## Xeph

This is an almost 4 year old thread


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## Wyatt0422

Your point? It was referenced just yesterday on an unrelated post on Facebook so this is still circulating, and it's one of the first google responses when researching the debate about whether or not ice is harmful to dogs. This entire post and thread should be deleted.


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