Blind dog won't drink

[SandraWaguih]

I have a dog that just recovered from canine distemper. He's doing fine but the virus left him blind, unfortunately. He eats really well and gets excited when he smells the food. The problem is i can't get him to drink.

When he started not to drink i searched about the problem and tried a few things. I put some chicken stock in the water so he smelled it and began to drink. However lately he's refusing again to drink. Whenever i put the bowl in front of him he sniffs and then backs off and steps away as if he's scared. I tried putting some milk in the water as i read it worked with a lot of dogs but it didn't with him. He didn't take a sip.

Please help me to solve this problem

[ginger899]

This isn't so much for you, Sandra as you will already know about this by now...and I am very glad to hear your boy survived.

But for anyone else reading this thread, or visitors to the site. The only way to protect against the deadly disease Canine Distemper, is to make sure a dog is inoculated against it from puppyhood.

It very often kills. In the most awful way, and even if the dog survives, there can be effects like blindness.

[ginger899]

Firstly, I am glad to hear your dog survived Distemper. Great news.

I am very sorry that the poor boy lost his sight.
But I can tell how much he is loved and cared for. I am sure he will learn to adapt. At least he has love -and his life.

The best thing you can do is make his food with plenty of liquid in it.
He might come out of this in time. It might be exercise related? If he has been so sick, he may have been confined or unable to exercise, he's lost the thirst dogs often get after a long run....etc. There's nothing like a long run, or playing with ball/frisbee etc for making a dog thirsty. But he has been unable to do that, and may have lost the habit of desiring water.

So make his food with gravy, stock, etc. The nicest way to do this is to make 'dog stews'! With some meat and vegetables cooked together in a pan, with some liquid. The liquid has all the flavours and juices from what has cooked and they usually love this.
Even if they are averse to drinking, believe it, they will drink through the liquid to get to the food if they are hungry!

Work out how much liquid he needs per day (according to his weight) It should be between 1/2 and 1 ounce per pound of body weight per day.
There is info. on this site:
http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2014/05/07/dog-water-consumption.aspx