Ice or Ice water warning!

[Doreen]

I got this from a friend and thought I'd share:


Hello Everyone,

I am writing this in hopes that some may learn from what I just went through. We were having a good weekend till Saturday. On Saturday I showed my Baran and left the ring. He was looking good and at the top of his game. He had a chance at no less then one of the two AOM's.

It did not work out that way. After showing we went back to our site/set up and got the dogs in their crates to cool off. After being back about 30 min. I noticed Baran was low on water. I took a hand full of ice from my cooler and put it in his bucket with more water. We then started to get all the dogs Ex'ed and food ready for them.

I had Baran in his 48' crate in the van because this is the place he loves to be. He loves to be able to see everyone and everything. After checking him and thinking he was cooled off enough, we fed him. We walked around and one of my friends stated that Baran seamed like he was choking. I went over and checked on him. He was dry heaving and drooling. I got him out of the crate to check him over and noticed he had not eaten. He was in some distress. I checked him over from head to toe and did not notice anything. I walked him around for about a minute when I noticed that he was starting to bloat. I did everything I was taught to do in this case. I was not able to get him to burp, and we gave him Phasezime.

We rushed Baran to a vet clinic. We called ahead and let them know we were on our way. They were set up and waiting for us. They got Baran stablized very quickly. After Baran was stable and out of distress we transported him to AVREC where he went into surgery to make sure no damage was done to any of his vital organs. I am very happy to say Baran is doing great, there was no damage to any vital organs, and he still loves his food.

In surgery the vet found that Baran's stomach was in its normal anatomic position. We went over what had happened. When I told the vet about the ice water, he asked why I gave him ice water. I said that I have always done this. I told him my history behind this practice and his reply was, "I have been very lucky." The ice water I gave Baran caused violent muscle spasms in his stomach which caused the bloating. Even though I figured his temperature was down enough to feed, and gave him this ice water, I was wrong. His internal temperature was still high. The vet stated that giving a dog ice to chew or ice water is a big NO, NO! There is no reason for a dog to have ice/ice water. Normal water at room temperature, or cooling with cold towels on the inner thigh, is the best way to help cool a dog. The vet explained it to me like this: If you, as a person, fall into a frozen lake what happens to your muscles? They cramp. This is the same as a dog's stomach.

I felt the need to share this with everyone, in the hopes that some may learn from what I went through, I do not wish this on anyone. Baran is home now doing fine. So please if you do use ice and ice water, beware of what could happen.


Donna B
Executive Director
All Star Pet Rescue, Inc.
Linden, NJ
All Star Pet Rescue

[Spyglass Sally]

Do you know the person this happened to Doreen? I'm curious because an urban legend of this type has been floating around. Two examples:

• Do Ice Cubes Cause Bloat?
• Are ice cubes really harmful to dogs?

In fact, here's the basically same content email, but with slightly different who/where details, dated 8/9/07.

[Ares]

The physics seem sound but it seems a bit far fetched, if anyone finds anything out about it I would be very interested in what they find...

[Doreen]

No, I don't know them, I had gotten this from Rex's foster mom.

[Spyglass Sally]

I wrote "Donna B" and she told me she doesn't have any first hand knowledge of Baran. This is just something that was passed along to her via Facebook and she passed it on. Since it's a copy of the same message that's been circulating among different dog forums for years, I think it's just a hoax and giving your dog some ice cubes is not going to cause a problem.

Your muscles cramp in a frozen lake, btw, because your body shunts blood to your vital organs, and away from peripheral limbs, in an effort to keep your heart, brain, etc. oxygenated and you alive. Same principal as why you need to pee when you go outside on a cold day - the blood flows to your core, including your kidneys. But giving your dog a few ice cubes is not going to cause that reaction.

[Ares]

Thank you sally.

[Dragon]

yeah I'm screwed cause peaches loooooves to eat snow!

[Ron]

interesting either way

[Marylou Mader]

Well I have something to add to this. Years ago (about 18) I was weight pulling my Rottweilers. It was in the winter. My male Luger was in competition, during our waiting for the next rounds my kids were playing with Luger and tossing snow balls to him, we all thought it was quite cute. He then became distressed, and similar to Baran, drooling, and we saw his belly blowing up like a balloon. Well, lucky for us, we were at the Milwaukee C. Zoo, so we called for the Staff Vet. He came and we told him about the snow balls, etc. Luger was laying and the vet was going over him, when all of a sudden he belched like a drunken sailor, his stomach eased up and you could see the relief on his face. The vet had us monitor him and of course pull him from competition that day. But we were very lucky that he was able to release the air on his own.
This may be an urban legend, but I don't give my dogs ice or snow, unless it is just one cube in the A/C not when they are outside or over heated. I can't believe the amount of ice some of these people give their dogs. I really don't know when all this started, but years ago, we only gave them water and didn't have all that ice.

[Spyglass Sally]

I've seen kids playing hard in the pool and swallowing water with air get similarly distressed. Also from gulping air while chugging water on a hot day - until the big belch, which is followed by lots of laughter.