Water Intake Test For Your Pet
Sometimes your vet may ask you to quantify your pets’ water intake to check if they are drinking too much as this can be a marker of disease.
Water intake can vary depending on many factors, including the weather, the type of food your cat eats and how much activity he or she does. Consequently the amount of water your pet drinks can vary from day to day. Because of this, we do a Water Intake Test over 2 consecutive days (2x 24 hour periods) so that we can average out how much is actually taken.
It is very difficult to assess water intake if there is more than one animal in the household, as they share water sources. To do a Water Intake Test accurately, animals may need to be kept separate over the time of the test.
Textbooks define normal water intake as 1-2ml per kilogram of bodyweight per hour (equivalent to approximately 25-50ml/kg/24hrs).
For example, a 10kg dog (eg, a Westie) would be expected to drink approximately 480ml in 24 hours.
Step 1
Empty out all bowls that your pet normally drinks from, inside and outside the house.
Step 2
Fill a 2L (or 2 of these if your animal is very large!) container with water and only fill the water bowls from this bottle for the 24 hours.
Step 3
Don’t allow the bowl/s to be empty of water.
Step 4
After 24 hours pour the water back into the 2L container and then work out how much has been consumed.
Step 5
Repeat Steps 1-4 over 1 more 24-hour period.
Bring your calculations into the clinic or call us so we can assess the amount of water your pet drank and work out whether this is normal or abnormal.