Will Giving Your Dog Ice Water Kill It? Get the Truth Here

A story claiming that giving your dog ice water when it's hot and thirsty could kill it has resurfaced on social media recently, but is there any truth to the claim, or is it just another made up story? The answer is both — kind of.

I first heard of the story after a friend and former co-worker shared the story on her Facebook page. To paraphrase, a show dog owner gave his dog a bowl of ice water during a break in a competition and after an undisclosed amount of time, the dog appeared to be dry heaving and drooling. The owner rushed him to a nearby vet clinic where it was determined the dog's stomach was not in it's normal position, requiring emergency surgery to correct. Upon discovering the dog had been given ice water, the vet told the owner dogs should never be given ice water to cool down claiming that it causes the animals stomach muscles to cramp much like a human beings would if one were jump into icy cold water.

According to Snopes.com, the story has origins as far back as 2007, but the claim is false. However there is a condition known as acute gastric dilatation-volvulus, or GDV (also referred to as "bloat"), defined as the following in a 2005 newsletter from the Indiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at Purdue University:

Canine acute gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV) is a medical and surgical emergency that is seen most commonly in large and giant breed dogs. The syndrome is characterized by accumulation of gas in the stomach and malpositioning of the stomach with obstruction of eructation and pyloric outflow. Subsequent systemic effects of GDV including hypovolemic shock, endotoxemic shock, respiratory compromise, concurrent metabolic acidosis and alkalosis, and reperfusion injury are all implicated in the resultant death of affected dogs. Though this disease has been studied for years, the exact etiology and pathogenesis is still not clear.

To put it in layman terms, it's not what the dog drinks, it how it drinks it. The condition develops when a dog laps up liquid to quickly, taking in a large amount of air in the process. The abundance of extra air causes the stomach to expand quickly, and in some cases, twist, requiring emergency surgery to correct the problem.

So there you have it. However, this information should not be perceived as a "blank check" for dog owners to give their dogs as much ice water as they want. You should monitor the amount of water your dog drinks after vigorous exercise, or hotter-than-normal summer days, regardless of the water's temperature to ensure you don't wind up with a massive vet bill, or even worse, a dead dog. Bring your pet inside to cool it off, or lay cool, damp towels across the body to help regulate their temperature.

[Sources: Snopes.com / Indiana Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory]