Hi all! Hope you are all well!
I have a bit of a problem, which quite frankly has left me totally stumped! I have a litter of 6, 8 week old puppies.  All wormed from birth etc - now, I have been weaning them off mum for the past 10 days or so and they are on royal canin dry food. I began weaning them by wetting the food down which I have slowly dried out over the past 10 days or so.
I have 1 male puppy who is throughly healthy in every other way EXCEPT he will not drink!!!! he will lap water in food (ie if I make it really wet) and he is really keen to take it from a syringe or dripped off my finger but he will not lap from a bowl or saucer or anything! I have tried welpi, warm water, baby gravy (i havent tried proper gravy because of the salt content) chicken stock that I have made my self - he has had no trauma to the mouth or face that I can see, he is bright and playing happily with the other pups, no vomiting or diahorrea but he does seem a bit constipated but he is going regularly, poo is just hard, tummy not bloated to make me worry about that though. His skin is tenting, but his eyes aren't sunken. I have been a veterinary nurse for the past 10 years and this have even got my vets stumped! I have never seen anything like it! Just wondering if anybody else had come across it? :-)

My aunt normally has the food almost water when she starts weaning.  Almost like a thick gravy. 

Sometimes dogs are not to bright when it comes to learning about how to drink water.  If you do this with the food, then they cant bite up pieces, and have to drink it.  But it will teach them to drink, and eventually less food will have to be a slurry. 

She has also had to take her finger, and put it in the water, and bring it up to the pup.  Slowly, she makes it so her finger is less high off the bowl than the time before.  Eventually, her finger is under the water and they learn how to drink that way.

HTH.  I havent had experience with a pup not wanting to drink, but thats what I have been told by my aunt and mom

I expect you've already checked but maybe he has a short tongue?

Like suggested you probably have checked his tongue length and anatomy is all correct in his mouth?

If he still won't lap I would suggest keeping him on a wet food, at least he will get some moisture then...i.e Generally anyway, I add puppy meat to Royal Canin, warm it and wet it a bit with hot water, so it smells delicious! Obviously wait for it to cool a bit...I'm sure you don't need that advice but as sure as eggs is eggs someone will comment and say I'm trying to feed boiling hot food to puppies! :P

If he's ok anatomically and no physical reason for his lack of lapping or drinking, I would advice new owners to keep him on a 'wet' feed for a while. Never heard of it before by the way! At least he's unique!

Unique he certainly is!! Bless him! Everything is anatomically corect in his mouth, good bite (not that that would have a bearing on it anyway!) correct length of tongue, the pallet is fully formed and he doesnt seem to have a sore throat either! I really dunno! I have told the new owners that I am not happy with him leaving me just yet and they are fine with that - I just dont know how to solve the problem! I don't want to let him dehydrate because of the risk to his kidneys, but at the same time I dont want him to become dependant on me giving him liquid through a syringe! What a dilemma!! Thank you all for replying though! xx

I don't think there is a solution though is there? It will only be time and his decision that will change things! He's a norty little devil 'aint he! He just doesn't want to do it yet and is enjoying all the attention you lavish on him!!!! :D

Maybe you could try him on goats milk?  both of my litters have absolutely loved drinking.
Good luck with him, it sounds like he may like the special attention!!

My oldest bitch is awful for not drinking, she tends to wait until she's really desperate!  I just make sure that there's plenty of fresh water available (she must have the tang of chlorine!) I add water to her kibble, and on days when I know she'll stop drinking altogether I give her well-soaked kibble (rainy weather ;) )  she's in perfect health other than this , but I like to make sure she gets enough liquids.

Don't know why she's like this, my other two are fine ????

I'm assuming you've tried letting pup lick milk/gravy off your finger and taking your finger into the milk at the same time??

I know it is completley different but my sisiter and my daughter (the human kind) will go all day without drinking they have done it forever. Both of them say they just dont think about it and rarley get thirsty. Its worrying but I guess different bodies do different things human and caninie

Hi Maria, how are you? how is the puppy getting on now?

This is a thought from a mate. Might be worth looking into :) :-
Maybe it's like hamsters and gerbils that can't drink out of a bowl if they are used to a bottle or vice versa.... if he's been getting all his fluid from mum thro milk, maybe it doesn't occur to him that he can do anything other than suckle. Or maybe he could have something wrong with a tongue nerve or muscle - you know like people that can roll their tongues or can't.
Hope he works it out :)
Lea :)

This probably has no bearing on the pup but do you live in a hard water area?
I live in a very hard water area and my Collie will hardly ever drink from the dogs water bowl, but rain water or puddles or a bowl put outside to collect rain water and that's where she goes to drink.

If we have long hot dry weather (that's a joke it's absolutely persisiting it down outside at the mo :) )and there's no rain water about her poo's get very hard as she won't drink and I have to go get bottled water!!!

I'm not sure if it's because she can smell the chlorine in the water or if it's because it's so hard, I have noticed though that when we holiday in Cornwall there's never a problem so the Cornish must have the sweetest water.

LOL Yeah and the Cornish have plenty of water!!

Hello all! Thank you all for your thoughts and ideas, and hi Hayley, i'm fine thank you very much, hope your well!
It's not great news i'm afraid :-( I managed to get him lapping this morning and as he stood up and shook his head a load of water came out! Now I have seen that before in a puppy and it had a condition called megaoesophagus. This is basically where the oesophagus is dilated and so cannot carry the food/water down to the stomach and so is regurgitated. In a puppy it is purely a congenital defect and is down to the fact the nerves to the oesophagus haven't developed properly.
Generally these pups don't do too well as the risk of aspiration pneumonia is very high, but with time and care it can be managed. Food and water bowls need to be elevated, so regurgitation isn't quite so easy. Which leads me onto my next question - has anybody successfully managed this condition in a puppy?
It all ties in now - it is something that only becomes apparant after weaning, every time I syringed him water or gave it to him off of my finger he was in an upright position, if he was feeding from mum he was upright but as soon as he lapped with his head down, it all came back up :-( Although we haven't had an official diagnosis - getting that diagnosis is just as dangerous. Diagnosis will have to be a barium xray and if puppy aspirates barium that could be fatal. I am so upset - he is such a sweet little man. I certainly can't send him to his new home - the new owners will be so upset - I really am not looking forward to that phone call :-(

So sorry to hear that :-(
Angela

Sorry to hear this do let us know how it goes with your little one.

So sad to hear this, I hope something can be done, keeping fingers crossed for you.

So sad for you and the pup :(

Hope the vets can do something

I am not sure exactly how old the dog with this condition was but I know someone whose pup was over ayear I believe when they lost him. If I can find anthing out more that you have already said I will post you.
I am so sorry you allmust be heartbroken