For the last 10 -14 days my dog has been vomitting, usually after water. It took us a little while to work out which dog it was as we have three. When we first saw the vet she gave him an injection to stop him vomitting and some electrolyte salts and advised there was no temperature etc and she thought he probably had a mild stomach irritation. The injection seemed to work for two/three days bi on Thursday evening he started vomitting again, by now we had worked out this was always after having water. We took him back to the vets on Friday and saw someone else who suggested that the dog may have an inflammed pancreas and suggested that we initially tru him on a gluten free diet as this problem may initially have been brought about to a wheat intolerence which until now we have not been aware of and which has for some reason "flared up". We have been feeding the dog this gluten free diet and touch wood, he has not been sick again - yet. Has anyone else had a similar problem and if so what was the cause and how did you cure it. I am worried sick I have to admit.

How is your dog now?

I'll be interested to see what happens - because I think I might have a similar pancreas problem!!

Jo and the Casblaidd Flatcoats

He is still not right. Yesterday we tried him with a "normal" drink, until now he has been on restricted amounts of half a pint at a time, he vomitted it straight back up along with the contents of his stomach which should have been well digested as he had been fed some 5 hours previous. We have had to go to our vets a lot lately and yesterday we saw the practice owner. She advised that she had a labrador that had kidney failure and she had done all the tests etc and was preparing for that final decision to put her dog to sleep when someone mentioned that the problem could have something to do with a water softener. Our vet advised that she immediately disconnected her water softener and initially started to give her dog bottled water with as low a salt content as she could find. The dog recovered in full from its kidney problems and went on to live a happy and healthy life for another 3 - 4 years. I would never have known that a water softener could cause problems if I had not spoken to my vet. Our vet now thinks that this may be the cause of my dogs problems. Needless to say, as soon as we returned home yesterday from the vets we disconnected the water softener although this may get us into trouble as we are only renting the property we are currently in but our dogs health comes first. It does tie in as a probable cause as we only moved in at Christmas. Fingers crossed we will start to see an improvement shortly. I will let you know what happens. Oh, by the way, the change of food to a gluten free diet, Canine I.D. made no difference at all.

Thank you for the feedback and please keep us posted as to your dogs progress. If it is the water softener then this is something we all need to be aware of!

That's very interesting. I have found that a low carbohydrate (maybe low gluten as well, not sure) helps me as well. We don't have a water softener, but will ask my husband what Thames water adds to the mains (he works for them)

Jo and the Casblaidd Flatcoats

When we moved to our house, nearly twenty years ago - my year old son wasn't well. The doctor suggested that it might be the water softener. We found that the previous owners had connected it to the main incoming pipe, so that ALL the water in the house was softened. Water softeners should never be connected to the main drinking water supply.

Daisy

Well, its early days but there would appear to be a definite change in my boy now that he is not drinking "softened" water. He is no longer as thirsty as he was. Before we became aware of this potential cause he was constantly demanding drinks and drinking like it was the last drink he was ever going to get, even licking the bowl dry. Now, even though he is still restricted with regards to how much water we will give him etc he actually does not drink it all, we have even taken a chance of leaving a water bowl out and he has ignored it, this would never have happened before Friday. We have to give it at least a week before we know whether or not he is cured but fingers crossed the signs are looking good. We did have a full blood check done on Friday, this showed nothing untoward, if it turns out not to be the water the next stage is scans/xrays etc. I'll keep you all posted.

Well, we are fairly confident that our dogs problems are over now that we are no longer giving him softened water. He has not been sick since last Friday and he is now able to drink a proper amount of water. It would seem that the vets diagnosis with regards to the water softener was spot on. This should be made public to every dog owner and from what my vet has said it may prevent some from getting renal failure or even death. I just wish I had known about it before my dog got ill. There is nothing in the manufacturers information that suggests that it is not safe to drink the water !!

Sorry, but I agree with Daisy. Salt-based water softeners are not supposed to be connected to the main drinking water supply. It is supposed to be connected after the cold supply to the kitchen sink. All drinking water should then be taken from the kitchen tap only. This information should be in the manufacturers installation guide for the plumber (probably not in the user guide though). I'd be getting onto your landlord and insisting that a plumber checks out the installation before using it.

I'm sorry to hear that your dog has been so ill and very glad that you've got to the bottom of it now. :) Wishing him all the best. :)

Monty's Mum :)

You should report your Landlord to the Environmental Health, they should not be able to let a property without appropriate plumbing for a softener, if someone had moved in with a young baby they would have become very ill.

If you are almost sure that it is the mains water then perhaps you should buy a Brita Water Filter, it should take out any impurities. There are a number of homoeopathic remedies that will help as well. By the way the Brita is like a jug not the type you fit to the mains!

Thank you so much for all of your replies and support. We did not know about the problems caused by water softeners. This softener has been installed since 1989 and we checked the manufacturers handbook to see if they said anything about not drinking the water and all they say is not to give softened water to babies under 1 year or to those who are on a low sodium diet. We have obviously informed the letting agents and hopefully they will inform all future tenants, we ourselves are hoping not to be here for much longer as we are frantically house hunting. Anyway, needless to say, neither me, my partner nor any of my three dogs drink softened water, in fact we have completely disconnected the softener and use bottled water. We have put this info on our own website, our club website and newsletter and it will appear in our breed note section of Our Dogs. Like you say, it is a shame my dog had to become very ill before we found out what the problem was. Our vet has also told many other vets and the info will be going out on a local radio programme she does. Once again, thanks to everyone for their support.