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Making sure your pet stays well hydrated is especially important with warm weather on the way (believe it or not east coasters!) You can help pets avoid dehydration and encourage a healthy urinary system by feeding fresh and canned foods. Getting more moisture into your pet’s system is important throughout its life and especially as it ages. Try to make moist foods the majority of every older cat and dog's diet.

How to Get More Moisture Into Your Pet

*      Canned food, all meat/no grain varieties are good choices

*       Balanced raw food diet

*       Cooked chicken or turkey breast with broth

*       Low fat plain yogurt

*       Cottage cheese

*     Organ meats such as heart, liver or kidneys

*      Gizzards

*     Steamed vegetables such as squash or broccoli. Grinding helps break down cellulose and make raw vegetables more digestible for pets.

*   Green beans, pea pods and Jerusalem artichokes are also good choices as they contain substances that are related to or may mimic insulin.

*      Encouraging water consumption.

Encouraging Water Consumption  

To encourage your pet to drink more, provide plenty of cool fresh water at all times. Filtered or spring water is a good idea to use as it may taste fresher and contains fewer particles for the kidneys to process. Distilled water is not a good choice, as it may actually flush needed minerals out of the body.

Try to provide several types of drinking stations for your pet through out the house and cater to your pet’s wishes for drinking water (except out of the toilet.) Try different types of bowls; some cats and dogs prefer a really wide bowl or have a preference for glass, ceramic or stainless steel. Many a small dog or cat will appreciate their own glass of water on the night table. (Use caution and/or plastic cups, as some animals have been known to knock over the glass in the middle of the night!) One client of mine even has two cups on her night table. Both are plastic, but hers has a plastic lid and straw. Now she and her kitty are both happy!

Many cats and dogs like to drink fresh running water. As a result, there are now several different types of water fountains for pets on the market. Some pets (especially cats) can be suspicious of new things; so make sure you know they are drinking out of the fountain before removing the other water bowls. One of my clients told me her cat wouldn’t go near the new water fountain until she sprinkled treats around it. Eventually she was able to taper off placing the treats there, and the cat started to use the fountain!

Another client of mine got her dog to drink more by floating his favorite treats in the water bowl while he was watching. Another client puts a few inches of clean water in her bathroom sink every morning for her cat. Think out of the bowl and provide your pet with plenty of opportunities to get more fluids!

Adding warm water or broth to your pet’s food is another way to get them to consume more liquids. Low sodium beef, chicken, vegetable broth or tuna water can also be offered to supplement your pet's fresh water. If you are tempted to serve your pet low sodium soup, read the list of ingredients carefully, and do not give it to your pet if the soup contains onion powder. Onion powder can cause changes to red blood cells and can cause illness or even death.

Your veterinarian may at some point recommend giving subcutaneous (SC) injections of saline solution under the skin to support hydration and keep the kidneys flushed. Commonly prescribed types of fluids are normal saline solution (Normosol) and lactated ringers solution (LRS). When low potassium levels (hypokalemia) are an issue, some veterinarians will add potassium to the fluid bag for additional benefit. Vitamin B may also be added to the fluids in case the animal may be deficient in this vitamin (due to poor appetite). Vitamin B can also help stimulate appetite. A trained veterinary technician such as moi can show you how to administer the fluids if you chose to do this at home. Stayed tuned for Part II - Tips for Giving Your Pet SC Fluids!