Chuckie is one of those dogs who managed to get himself into trouble this weekend.  His was an unusual type of trouble.

Chuckie was feeling fine and got a bath Sunday evening.  His mom told me he had a habit of drinking a lot of the bathwater every time he took a bath.  He also did this in his swimming pool outside.  Sunday night’s bath was no different.  He played like the crazy 1.5 year old Jack Russell he is.  Then he went outside.  His mom went to get him, and he seemed quiet and wobbly.  Then, in her words, ‘he spaced out’ – started drooling, was very wobbly and unable to walk.  They brought him right in.

When he arrived, I didn’t like the looks of him.  He was very wobbly – really unable to stand on his own.  He was drooling profusely, and mentally he was not ‘all there’.  He responded to us, but seemed very dull and confused.  His blood pressure was normal.  We immediately drew blood, put an IV catheter in and started some IV fluids.

When we see young otherwise healthy patients like Chuckie who suddenly have these types of neurologic signs, we immediately think of toxins – we see a lot of animals who get into pills and other things that can cause symptoms like this.  I asked Chuckie’s mom and dad about potential toxins – they thought very hard, but couldn’t think of anything. 

Then I got his bloodwork back.  Everything was normal except his sodium and potassium levels in his blood were quite low, which is unusual in a dog who has only been sick for a short time (probably less than an hour).  I started my own thinking – what was going on with this little dog??

Suddenly it dawned on me – he drank a lot of water, now he was wobbly, drooling and confused.  This is an unusual condition – something called ‘water intoxication’. You runners out there have probably heard of this – it can actually kill you to drink too much water.

Here are some links:

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/hydration/a/aa051200.htm

http://www.hhp.ufl.edu/keepingfit/ARTICLE/toomuchwater.htm

http://www.prevention.com/article/0,,s1-2-141-563-5165-1,00.html

http://my.webmd.com/content/article/36/1676_50497.htm

The problem is if you take in too much plain water, it causes changes in your blood sodium (salt) level, and that can cause brain swelling (cerebral edema) – the excess water moves into the brain cells.  Untreated, this can be fatal.

Well, I immediately slowed Chuckie’s fluids down and changed the fluid to a higher salt content.  Usually the treatment for this is limit water intake and the kidneys take over and excrete the excess water.  But Chuckie was not so easy – about 2 hours later, he nearly went into cardiac arrest.  After a very tense hour in which he was comatose, he started coming around (we gave him medications to reduce brain swelling).  By morning, he was more alert but very tired and weak. 

We sent him to his regular veterinarian today, who continued his care.  I just spoke to his dad tonight – Chuckie is still tired, but will chase a ball, is eating, and definitely improving.  Hopefully in a few days his recovery will be complete.

Chuckie may not be so clean in the future, as his bath time will definitely be limited!