Are you facing the challenge of getting your dog to drink water after his surgery?
Your vet had recommended that it’s important to make sure that your pet stays hydrated to prevent complications and speed up his recovery.
But, it’s hard to get him to drink water, and you are cracking your head on this…
Well, guess what? You are not alone.
How do you encourage your dog to drink water?
To get your dog to drink water after his surgery, make his water bowls easily available at his frequently visited spots. Use a drinking fountain to make his drinking an “exciting” event. Prepare a smoothie or broth or make his plain water more “enticing”. Add water to his food or do a manual feed.
Place Water Bowls At His Frequent Visit Spots
Have more water bowls placed at various strategic locations in the house.
This will encourage him to drink water as it is easily available in most of the spots that he will be visiting.
The idea is to make it easy for him to drink water wherever he goes.
Water bowls should be placed in locations where he can easily see and reach them.
Use A Dog Drinking Fountain
Make drinking water an “exciting” task for your dog by using a dog drinking fountain.
You see, as compared to your dog bending his head down to drink water from a water bowl, it is certainly going to be much more exciting to see water dispensing from the fountain and him taking a slip right away.
This will stimulate his mind and he will learn to associate thirst quenching with the act of him pushing the button on the fountain.
Moreover, water dispensing from the fountain is going to be much cleaner as it does not come into contact with the water bowl (which can be dirtied by your dog) and goes through a filtering stage.
Also, the action of “catching” the spraying water from the fountain is going to be more satisfying than simply slipping from a bowl. This will make him look forward to his next drink.
Get Him A Doggy Smoothie
This is certainly going to be much more enticing than plain water in a water bowl. You can prepare a cup of smoothie for your dog each morning.
The recommended serving size will be one tablespoon per five pounds of his body weight.
You can add a small amount of plain yogurt (Yogurt contains Lactobacillus, which aids in digestion and promotes good health) and avoid adding any sugar to the smoothie.
Add fruits that are naturally sweet to make the smoothie more tempting for him. You can go for strawberries, cherries, grapefruit, blueberries, apples and pears.
You should also add some green leafy veggies such as spinach, kale or collard greens. These veggies contain a lot of vitamins and minerals that are good for your dog.
You can chop them finely and add them to the blender along with the fruits and yogurt.
This way, your dog will get the health benefits of both fruits and veggies.
Mix all the ingredients together well and serve your dog his “smoothie”.
Add Water To His Food
This is probably one of the easiest ways to make sure that your dog gets some fluid (water) every day.
Just add a little water to his food and ensure that he finishes the food.
You won’t have to worry about him getting dehydrated.
But don’t overdo it! Adding too much water to his diet can cause your dog to start avoiding food as well.
Make Use Of Ice Pops
Did you use this approach (use of ice pops) to “lure” your kids when they are refusing to drink water?
This “trick” also works for dogs as well.
If your dog is not willing to drink water, just put a couple of ice cubes in his water bowl and that will trigger his drinking desire.
The icy sensation will never fail to entice your dog to drink.
Alternatively, you can simply place some ice cubes in his water bowl and let him enjoy the licking of the ice.
Tasty Broth That Your Dog Cannot Resist
It’s common for us to have chicken broth in our meal as they are not merely tasty but also nutritious.
You can also prepare that for your dog, especially when he is recuperating from surgery.
That will make up the fluid his body needs if your dog doesn’t like to drink water.
It also supplements his body with minerals, proteins and other nutrients.
To prepare the broth, what you need is 1 whole chicken with 5 liters of water and 60 ml of apple cider vinegar. You can add some carrots to make the broth taste sweeter.
Place all the ingredients (chicken and carrots) in a pot, add water and vinegar and leave it to boil and simmer for 12 hours.
Remove the carcass and leave the broth to cool down.
You can keep the broth in the freezer and heat the broth (preferably using a microwave), then mix it with some dry kibble and give it to him in his food bowl.
You can also feed him with the broth directly just as if he is drinking water.
Make His Plain Water More “Interesting”
You can make his drinking water more appetizing to him by adding tuna flakes to his drink.
This is yet another popular approach that most dog owners adopt when they find their dog resists taking plain water.
By adding tuna flakes to the plain water, it makes the water more “interesting” for the dog as he gets to smell and taste a little “treat” in his water. It works like a charm every time!
However, you must be careful not to overdo this. You don’t want your dog to have too much of a “treat” in his water every day.
This will lead to him developing a bad habit and resisting taking plain water in the future.
Alternatively, you can add a bit of the honey to the water to make it more appetizing for him.
Remember, both these approaches are only short term solutions.
In the long run, you must correct the real cause of his resistance to drinking plain water.
Manual Feeding
This is the last resort if your dog simply doesn’t drink any water on his own record despite doing what you can.
Load a syringe with plain water and insert the syringe right into the corner of his mouth.
Then, gently squeeze the fluid into his mouth. Make sure that your dog swallows the water.
Give him a pat and praise him when he does it.
This will create positive reinforcement that will hopefully encourage him to drink water whenever he feels thirsty.