# Don't give ice cubes.



## MY MIKADO (Apr 7, 2006)

This is a cross post from another forum. Sorry it is so long but gives a good reason for not giving your dog ice cubes.

Hello Everyone, 
I am writing this in hopes that some may learn from what I just went 
through. We went to the Steel Valley Cluster this past weekend. We 
were having a fair weekend till Saturday. On Saturday was the EVRC 
specialty, I had my Baran boy with me as this was his first show as 
a veteran. Baran was so happy to be in the ring again after about a 
year of not showing. He was all geared up and showed like a trooper. 
He was at the top of his game, and everyone was commenting on how 
good he looked at 71/2 years old. Baran was Best Veteran Male and 
went on to the BOB ring, in the BOB ring Baran again showed great he 
showed so good I figured he would make the cut and have a chance at 
no less then one of the two AOM's. 

Well anyway 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 30min. 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. (Note: I use a small Playmate cooler at ringside with 
ice water in it also. Have for over 15 years now) I use small 2qt. 
buckets in my crates. He had maybe ½ a bucket when I placed him in 
his crate after coming back from the ring. We all then started to 
get all the dogs Ex'ed and food ready for them. 

I have a 18 foot trailer with AC and set up as a rolling kennel it 
fits 7 42" crates, and MY express Van holds 1 48", 1 42", and 3 36", 
crates all the crates in the van have 24 " box fans over them. I had 
Baran in his 48' crate in the van cause that is the place he loves 
to be. He loves to be able to see everyone and every thing. After 
checking the dogs and thinking they were cooled off enough we feed 
everyone. As we were walking around picking out the feed dishes from 
the crates, one of my friends stated that Baran seamed like he was 
choking. I went over and check on him and he was dry heaving and was 
real drolly. I got him out of the crate to check him over I noticed 
he had not eaten, he was in some what distress. I checked him over 
from head to toe and did not notice anything. I walked him around 
for about a min. 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 jumped on the golf cart to take him down to the Show vet to find 
out that he did not have a bloat kit, He referred us to the clinic 
that was to be on call, but we found out that the clinic was closed. 
After finding another clinic that was open we rushed Baran to that 
one. We call ahead and let them know that we were on our way. They 
were set up and waiting on us and got Baran stable very fast. After 
Baran was stable and out of distress we transported Baran to AVREC 
were he went into surgery to make sure no damage was done to any of 
his vital organs. I am very happy to say that Baran is doing great, 
there was not damage to any vital organs, and he still loves his 
food. 

In surgery the doctor found that Baran's stomach was in its normal 
anatomic position. The Doctor and I went over the events of what 
happened up to the point of Baran's Bloating. When I told him about 
the ice water he asked why I gave him ice water, and have I always 
did this. I told him my history behind this practice and his reply 
was "I have been very lucky for the past 15 years." The ice water I 
gave Baran cause violent Muscle spasm in his stomach which caused 
the bloating. Even though I figured his temp was down enough to feed 
and give him this ice water his internal temp was still high. Dr. 
Vogf stated that giving dog's ice to chew or ice water is a big NO, 
NO; there should be not reason for them to have ice/ice water. 
Normal water (room Temp.), or cooling with cold towels on the inter 
thigh. This is the best way to help cool a dog. How Dr. Vogf 
explained it to me was like this: If you as a person fall into a 
frozen lake what happens to our muscles? Think about that, and then 
compare that to your 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. He dose not like the fact that he has 
to be walked on lead in the yard to keep him from running. He hates 
not being able to go out and rough house it with the others, but is 
doing great. So please if you do use ice and ice water, beware as 
what could happen.


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## dan'sgrizz (Oct 22, 2008)

Oh shit grizz loves cubes.... Whoops. He chomps them right down as a treat, guess I should stop


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## MY MIKADO (Apr 7, 2006)

I had never heard of this happening before but the board that this post was on they (show) people said that is happens alot. I think it has more to do with a dog being overly hot and then taking in a cold ice/water.


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## mom2twopups (Mar 4, 2009)

Oh no...that is crazy. I never heard of this and we give Paddy (the lab) ice all the time, she loves it. We don't give it to Lucy because she is so small, and loosing her baby teeth, so we didn't want it to hurt her mouth. I guess that we don't do this anymore after a long walk. I would hate for this to happen to them. How scary!


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## LiiL_L0cz_Red_N0se (Sep 15, 2008)

holy [email protected] im glad i never did the ice water thing... i had been meaning to give kenya an ice cude to see what she would do with it, but never have.. thats some scary stuff right there


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## ~StangChick~ (Jan 1, 2009)

wow, thanks for sharing that i always give sully ice for a treat. thats scary.


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## rosesandthorns (Nov 1, 2008)

Really scary! My dogs like to grab the ice cubes when they pop out of the ice tray and hit the floor. guess I've had a lucky 30 years. thanks for sharing that info. glad Baran is better. Can't keep a good dog down.


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## Bleu Clair (Jun 14, 2008)

Oh my, thank you so much for posting this. I had no idea. We give Baby ice all the time 'cause she likes to chew on it. She even has a bone that you fill with water and it freezes in the shape of a bone. I won't be giving her that or any ice anymore.


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## thaim (Feb 6, 2009)

WOW helpful thread thanks. no more ice deagle! haha glad ur dog is ok


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## Coletrain (Oct 26, 2008)

Wow my dogs love ice cubes. They even jump up on the fridge and dispense the ice themselves if they want some. No more ice cubes for them anymore. Thanks for the article.


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## koonce272 (Sep 16, 2008)

Good post.

But i agree with the above. It has more to do with an overly hot dog, given something COLD. It was more the cold than the ice(shape, size, form) itself. This would have happend even if given very very cold water, not ice.

That what I got out of the the Doc was saying.

Even drinking water too fast is a cause of bloat.

Im def never gonna recommend ice in water again, even if the dog is not hot.

It makes sense, going from a warm/hot state to a cold, to rapid.


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## kidoekid (Mar 23, 2009)

yikes! this is good to know. ive been doing the ice cube thing (to chew and in the water bowl), however, here in vegas, the weather is super hot in the summer. talking 100+ degrees with horrible dryness. 

what if the water alone is just ice cold? no ice cubes, just cold???


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