Portland veterinarian dispels connection between ice water and bloat in dogs

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on June 28, 2014 at 12:45 PM, updated June 28, 2014 at 12:46 PM
Pet-Talk-Dr.-Jason-Nicholas-headshot-060813.JPGDr. Jason Nicholas of Preventive Vet discusses the connection - or lack thereof - between ice water and bloat. 

An article claiming that ice water can cause a life-threatening condition in dogs is confusing and potentially harmful, according to Portland veterinarian Dr. Jason Nicholas of Preventive Vet

A version of the article was posted in 2010 on the blog Wendt Worth Corgis, although Nicholas says it has been making the Internet rounds since 2007. 

The author of the posting writes that after showing her dog, Baran, she gave him some water with ice in it to help him cool down, and he went into gastrointestinal distress.

She implies her dog was suffering from a serious and life-threatening condition known as gastric dilatation and volvulus (GDV) which is sometimes referred to as bloat.

The dog appeared to be choking, dry heaving and drooling, and his stomach became distended, or bloated.

After rushing Baran to a clinic for surgery, the author writes that the veterinarian told her the ice water she had given to Baran "caused violent muscle spasms in his stomach which caused the bloating."

Nicholas is concerned that important details were left out of the story, giving readers inaccurate information about Baran's actual condition.

For one thing, there is no scientific proof that ice water causes stomach spasms; if it did, humans would suffer from it as well.

What's more, he notes, if a dog is suffering from true GDV, its stomach not only becomes distended but actually twists on itself. Baran's owner notes that the veterinary exam revealed the dog's stomach was in its normal anatomic position.

"Bloat" is such a nebulous and oft ill-used term," Nicholas says. "Bloat really just means the distention, though many people (including, I suspect, the author of that article) use it to mean GDV -  the often fatal, serious emergency condition of dogs."

Nicholas doesn't doubt that Baran's stomach was distended, but that was likely a result of him drinking so much water so fast, not because of the temperature of the water.

While causes of bloat aren't entirely understood, drinking large amounts of water (regardless of temperature) after exercising is considered one of several risk factors

"In this case, for example, the focus on the ice being the cause of the dog's 'bloat' is dangerous," Nicholas says, "because it gets people thinking that they can give their dog access to as much water as they can drink, so long as it doesn't have ice.

It's better for a dog to have only a small amount of ice water, he asserts, than to have a large amount of room-temperature water.

Nicholas believes the dog was actually suffering from a heat-related condition. That would explain Baran's drooling and dry heaving, as well as why he drank so much water.

Nicholas also expressed concern about the author's advice to cool down canines by placing cold towels on their inner thighs.

Not so, he says.

The most effective way to cool a dog, according to Nicholas, is to remove them from the hot environment, spray them with cool water and place a fan nearby to circulate cool air.

Overall, he says that while the author of the posting likely had good intentions, such articles can ultimately be very harmful to pets.

"They're dangerous because they seed and/or perpetuate false, misleading, and even sometimes outright dangerous information," he says. "Such information can actually lead to preventable pet suffering and even deaths."

--Monique Balas;