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My dog likes to drink from the pool more than his bowl. Is it safe to allow this to continue? My chlorine is maintained around 4ppm, Calcium and Alk in normal range for in-ground gunite/plastered pool. The CYA is 50ppm. I also have a SWG so the salt level is around 3500ppm.
It seems that if dogs can drink from dirty puddle water they should be able to handle clean pool water. I'm just not sure what safe chlorine levels are for animals.
Thanks.
I am not 100% but I believe drinking water *can* contain up to 10ppm of chlorine so I don't think the occasional drink from the pool will harm them. Other chems like some algeacides might cause problems. Also, I would not let them only drink from the pool.
I would always make sure that other water was available, but I wouldn't worry about the dog drinking from the pool inless you were in the middle of a major algae clean-up / or shock treatment.
I would say its a lot better for your dog to drink from the pool than from a puddle....and a puddle would never hurt a dog.
Even if the pool was his only source of water....dogs have enormous livers that allow them to deal with toxins better than most animals.
Unless your pool was grossly unbalanced with chemicals, chocolate, or antifreeze I think you are safe :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bleach=Chlorine?
Thanks for the replies. My pool water is maintained at 3 to 4 ppm Chlorine. I test every other day. And I don't shock or add anything (other than muratic acid to keep PH in range) to the pool.
I did a lot of internet searching on this and it seems about 50/50 for and against. I aways have clean fresh water available for the dogs as well.
Thanks.
My dog has fresh, clean water available at all times. I also have a sparkling clear pool and a not-so-sparkling koi pond. My dog invariably drinks out of the pond. Drinking the pool water is fine (for the dog ;) .
Janet
Think about this for a moment. Most animals live out in the wild - where do they drink from (puddles, ponds, streams, rivers, garbage containers, etc....) A pool is probably one of the cleaner sources of water for an animal. If you leave a water bowl outside for the dog it probably has all sorts of bacteria growing in it that you cannot see. As long as you don't put strange chemicals in the pool the dog should be just fine drinking from it.
Heck, we all swallow pool water when we go swimming and it does not hurt us. I many times will just taste the pool water (rather than hauling out the test kit) to determine my chlorine needs. :)
I got tired of putting fresh water out everyday just to find that my lab prefers pool water. It likes stagnant puddle water even better than pool water! The dog is still alive and digging holes despite drinking pool water for three years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cwstnsko
Ditto, the only other time I worry about them drinking out of the pool...is when they put their muddy paws on the steps to take that drink :eek:
My dogs avoid the pool (Yorkie, Miniature Schanuzer, and Long Haired Daschund). The Schanuzer is not the most graceful dog in the world and has fallen in the pool a few times and had to be rescused (she is a good swimmer and always gets to the swim out or the steps and waits for someone to lift her out.) The other two just don't like water....too much like bathtime I guess.
All three of them prefer to drink from the water in the potted plants around the pool!
Now my cat is a different story. He thinks the pool is his own big water bowl and when the deck jets or falls are on he thinks it is his private water fountain! It hasn't seemed to hurt him. He will drink and play with the water for hours! He doesn't seem to mind getting wet! I am expecting to see him jump in and swim any day now because when I am in the pool he keeps dipping his paws in the water like he is testing the temperature.
All 4 of them have a fresh water bowl outside and a water fountain inside. They only drink out of either of them as a last resort.
Waterbear, I have an inside cat that loves the water too. We got him a "Drinkwell" pet fountain with the additional 100oz reservoir. When it gets very hot out I add ice to the jug to keep it cool. It wasn't cheep but well worth keeping the cat out of the toilet. He still gets into the sink when DH shaves or brushes his teeth, but he really loves the fountain. You can adjust the flow of the water. The other cats tollerate it and its another thing that uses electricity, but we love it. Once a week I tear it down and clean it out. Its six months old and going strong. Kim
that's what I have inside the house for the cat and the dogs...the cat still prefers the pool (or the kitchen faucet...he will sit and meow until someone turns it on for him!
My Miniature Schnauzers can't wait to get out by the pool.
They don't have any problems drinking out of their water
bowl in the winter when the solid cover is on the pool though.
What a cute pic!
Janet
So far I have cought 2 cats, a racoon, a possum, and 2 squirrels drinking from my pool. No dead critters yet. I work nights so I cruse the house on my nights off. Cat fell in the pool when I turned the back light on. I had my solor cover on and I swear looked like the cat was running on top of the pool. :D
Later
Steve
You guys are making this C.V.T. very happy. I love to hear people making sure their pets have the best of anything.
The pics are awesome. I would love to see more "pets and pools" pictures please.
Thanks for being great pet owners.
Rhonda
Dogs have amazing senses, a dog will not drink polluted water, they can sense what is drinkable and what is not - let him/her do it's thing.
We are on a well, a couple of times a year (spring rain and fall rain) we pick up surface runoff in our well and this will lead to bacteria such as e.coli.
For us, this is not a problem since we do not drink the water, just use it to shower and such, however, the dog drinks the water regularly, BUT, I have noticed that during those times, he turns up his nose at it and goes and drinks from the creek or a puddle.
I never need to test my well water, I just watch the dog.
You have nothing to worry about with the dog drinking the pool water - just watch it when you shock, but I bet the dog won't go near it over that time.
Well Rhonda,
You're forcing me to post one more picture. :-)
Are those two guys waiting their turn on the diving board??? Love those crepe myrtles.
CUTE, CUTE, CUTE!!!
We have 2 dogs that we cannot keep out of the pool!! They actually ask to go outside so they can swim. We have a sun step that they literally lie down on and just lay there in the water - and then they drink it.
Here are the pix!
We have noticed the 2 outside dogs that we had several years ago would drink the pool water, never had fleas but the inside dog that would go outside to only take care of her business (she is somewhat spoiled) had flea problems. Don't know if the chlorine has anything to do with it but will let the now 2 inside dogs out in the back yard to drink the pool water. Will see if this experment works.
I can see how a dog getting all wet from pool water could end up killing the fleas or having them jump off the dog, but I'm not so sure how drinking the water would help. Maybe just getting the nose wet with the chlorine is enough to discourage the fleas.Quote:
Originally Posted by pinkivory_99
At any rate, as was pointed out elsewhere, the chlorine levels normally found in pools aren't a serious health problem. When most municipalities switched from chlorine to monochloramine for drinking water disinfection, this was to reduce disinfection byproducts (DBPs especially trihalomethanes -- THMs) and these are minimal in pool water due to the conditioner (cyanuric acid -- CYA) that is used which effectively lowers the amount of active chlorine (and the production of DBPs) significantly.
On the other hand, the CYA in the pool is probably the only possibly "barely" toxic substance in sufficient quantity that is in the pool, at least for drinking. Even so, the toxicity rates are of the order of 3000 mg/kg so that would mean a pool with 50 ppm CYA would be toxic if one were to drink 60 liters per kilogram of body weight. If you believe OxyChem then Cyanuric Acid is not toxic at all.
Personally, I would be more concerned about the fact that drinking pool water is somewhat like drinking bath water (after taking a bath). It's probably too gross (though still somewhat safe) for us humans to drink, but to a dog it's not only just water, it's probably quite safe.
Richard