Can dogs drink fluoride water? Tips and Tricks

Contaminants and Hazards in tap water

These are some of the potential contaminants in tap water that may be a risk for your dog.

Though most E.coli strains are harmless, few dangerous strains in public water supplies can cause appetite loss, low body temperature, depression, increased heart rate, diarrhea, vomiting, malaise/weakness, and lethargy in dogs.

High doses of lead can cause acute stomach pain, diarrhea, and vomiting in your dog. Prolonged exposed over a long time period can cause your dog to experience seizures, fatigue, poor appetite, extreme anxiety, blindness, and changes in behavior.

High levels of fluoride are toxic and can damage kidneys. In dogs, it can cause severe sickness & diarrhea, restlessness, drooling, weak muscles, seizures.

There is a possible link between fluoride and cancer in dogs but there are studies have yet to confirm these facts.

However, drinking water has very low levels of fluoride, way below toxic levels so this may not be too alarming. Fluoride levels in dog food and toothpaste are more startling.

Whether chlorine is dangerous or not depends on the dose and duration of time with which your dog consumes it. The chlorine dose in tap water is baed on human consumption and not small animals.

Generally, the water is safe if the chlorine is within the set levels by regulatory guidelines. Though it has been reported that water maybe dangerous because of disinfection byproducts produced by the chlorine rather than the chlorine itself.

Despite clear documentation on the effects of chlorine in dogs it’s safe to say that this better be avoided.

A parasite which is transmitted by discharges of fecal wastes into water, food, soil, and other surfaces. This parasite can cause diarrhea in animals as well as humans.

Hard water is water with a high mineral content usually calcium and magnesium. Very hard water has been linked to urinary illness such as Crystalluria (crystal in urine) which may predispose your dog to stone formation and bladder and urinary tract infections. But calcium and magnesium are also essential minerals for your dog so normal hard water is probably a good thing.

Now before you freak out because of the above-mentioned complications, check whether your drinking water source actually has these risks.

Contact your water company to receive the annual consumer confidence report, a good assessment of your water quality. You can also buy a water testing kit or send your water to an EPA-approved laboratory or government departments of health to have professional approval on your water.

Recommendation: Filter your dog’s drinking water

When I was writing to Ann Tomlinson and her beautiful little dog Bailey about kidney and bladder stones which poor Bailey suffers from terribly, the first thing I recommended was that Ann filter the drinking water for Bailey with a water filter that also alkalises the water. Getting Bailey’s PH balance correct for him is one part of the strategy that Ann uses to keep those calcium deposits at bay.

Now although I know that dogs will drink the most weird and vile water, out of the (toilet) bowl, dirty, muddy water and from the strangest of places, the water we provide for them doesn’t have to be like that.

While the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates the quality of public drinking water, they do not oversee the safety of private wells. This means that its up to pet owners to ensure that their pets have access to clean, safe water.

Most people dont think twice about the quality of their tap water, but for pet owners, its important to be aware of the potential health risks associated with contaminated water.

There are a number of different water filters on the market that are designed to remove contaminants from tap water. Some of these filters use activated carbon to adsorb contaminants, while others use reverse osmosis water filtration system to remove them from the water.

You may want to give your pet filtered water if your tap water is not of the highest quality.

The answer is yes, it is ok to give your pet tap water. However, you may want to consider filtered water for your pet if your tap water is not of the highest quality.

Toxins in your dog’s drinking water

Water is essential to life, but is tap water safe for your pets? We discuss tap water safety and examine all the fuss over fluoride | Is Tap Water Safe for Your Pets?Water is essential to life, but is tap water harming your pet?

To a certain extent the answer depends on where you live. Simply put, if the tap water isn’t fit for human consumption then it shouldn’t be given to pets. However, even for water that is certified for human use this question has a deeper implication because of water additives, such as fluoride.

Chocolate, caffeine, raisins, and grapes are examples of things that are fine for humans, but not for cats and dogs. The same goes for fluoride. In many areas fluoride is added to the water supply, so what risk does this pose to our pets?

OK, so your pet’s favourite drinking water is probably from a plant pot in the yard. This is hardly clean, so why get worried about tap water (if indeed, should we worry at all?)

In free standing water some of possible water contaminants include bacteria and parasites such a giardia and cryptosporidium which cause nasty stomach upsets. For dogs, there’s also the danger of leptospirosis picked up from stagnant water contaminated with rat urine.

So yes, tap water that’s been through a processing plant should be a whole lot safer. Where the worries set in are that processed water often has high levels of additives such as chlorine or ammonia.

Indeed, cats don’t like the taste of chlorine and ammonia, and is one reason they prefer to drink from running water. Not only is flowing water better oxygenated but the chlorine evaporates off. A top tip is that if you live in an area where the water is heavily chlorinated; let it stand in the bowl for an hour before serving to your cat. This allows the chlorine to evaporate and the water becomes more appealing.

But dirty water doesn’t just extend to puddles. Unfortunately, the contaminants in tap water can include painkillers, antibiotics, anti-depressants and even hormones (all at low levels, so no pressing need to panic). A study by the Associated Press (AP) in the United States found that 25 out of 28 water treatment plants tested, had detectable levels of non-prescription drugs such as ibuprofen and Tylenol. OK, those levels are low, but it makes you want to quiz your local water treatment plant. Indeed, this may be the way forward as water utility providers are encouraged to share water reports with their consumers. Check the website of your local water utility company and see what they are sharing about their water quality.

In high enough levels fluoride is toxic. It puts a strain on the kidneys to excrete it from the body and can cause:

Wow! Sounds deadly. . . so why do we add it to our drinking water? OK, so the answer is to strengthen human teeth, but is this at the price of our pets?

Fluoride is added to drinking water at approximately the rate of 1 mg / kg. The toxic dose to animals is widely acknowledged as twenty to thirty times this level. This means for a cat or dog to be poisoned they’d need to drink a huge amount of water – which in itself can cause brain swelling from water intoxication.

Indeed, the bigger risk to our pets is from human toothpaste. This does contain high levels of fluoride – because it’s never meant to be swallowed. Brush your cat’s teeth with human toothpaste and she isn’t going to spit it out afterwards but swallow it. This is why it’s important to only ever use pet toothpastes when caring for your pet’s pearly whites.

It sounds like tap water is safe, because the levels of fluoride are low. But can we really be sure?

Some interesting food for thought from our canine cousins and a possible link between fluoride and bone cancer. It seems high levels of fluoride has been linked to the serious bone cancer, osteosarcoma, in growing boys. Long term exposure to high levels accumulates in the bone and predisposes to bone cancer.

Statistically, osteosarcoma is eight times more common in dogs than people. Could there be a link to sensitivity to fluoride? We don’t know. No studies as yet have looked into this.

However, nothing is ever straightforward. It might be that water is safe after all because the biggest source of fluoride for dogs is food containing bone meal. This is because fluoride supplemented livestock feeds lead to a build-up of fluoride in the bones of cattle and sheep. When those animals are slaughtered and their bones enter the food chain, our pets partake in a feast of fluoride.

Yes, in the short term it’s ideal for quenching thirst. . . but in the long term. . . truly, no one knows.