Dogs will commonly go to drink toilet bowl water for one simple reason, as tap water sits in a toilet bowl for longer periods of time the more the chemicals begin to dissipate in the water. Thus our dogs have been providing themselves with the purest water that they could possibly find at their disposal. Water is perhaps the most neglected daily nutrient your dog must count on for you to provide. In fact, it’s so important and so vital that no dog could possibly survive deprived of it for long before dying a painful death.
Dogs need constant access to water. It must be served “ad libitum” — on demand — and immediately available whenever a dog’s natural urge to drink calls for it. That’s because water is continuously being lost through the urine and feces.
And since dogs can’t sweat to stay cool, they lose a lot of moisture through the cooling effect of evaporation as they breathe and pant to control body temperature. Others frequently neglect to properly maintain a dog’s water bowl. They allow the water bowl to become dangerously polluted with germs from the dog’s own mouth. This hazardous situation is caused by using a water bowl that’s too small for the animal’s size. Or by allowing the water level in that bowl to become too low.
This can concentrate the germ population to a level high enough to cause disease. And it can be aggravated by forgetting to wipe away the slimy, germ-laden “biofilm” from inside the water bowl — at least once each day.
Chlorine Effects Chlorine in water has been linked to a wide range of human health maladies ranging from asthma and eczema to bladder cancer and heart disease.
Even the rates of miscarriages and birth defects are higher in areas where chlorinated water is provided. (The last two I found out about years ago when a doctor told me to stop drinking tap water after a miscarriage.) Partly due to dogs having a shorter life span it is accepted that they are more likely than we are to show adverse affects in a shorter time and since we are what we eat, what we drink is no different.
Dechlorination-Open Air Method As simple as leaving a jug or jar or water open to the air, where the chlorine will transform into a gaseous state and float away. It may take a day or two for all the chlorine to escape, but even leaving the water out overnight will remove most of the chlorine. The water can be left outdoors to dechlorinate, so chlorine gas isn’t floating around your house, but I think in a ventilated house, with a few jars of water, it’s not a problem to do it indoors. When water from a public water supply comes out of the tap, it still has chlorine in it from the disinfecting process.
Chlorine in water is volatile – that is, it evaporates easily. Just allowing your tap water to stand in an open container (with a wide mouth, such as a cooking pot) for two or three days will remove most of the residual chlorine. Your dog will benefit from this simple change to their water. I believe anyone can see the reasons as to why it would make such a dramatic difference for the health of our fur babies. It’s very simple and easy to implement into your regular life.
We leave water in a five gallon bucket overnight to ensure a sufficient amount of chlorine has evaporated out of it before giving it to the pack. -Simple Way To Eliminate Nightly Pollutant Buildup- When water sits motionless in pipes overnight, toxic metals have much more of a chance to leach into the water from pipes and plumbing fixtures.
The most notorious culprits are faucets, most of which contain lead. Water that has sat in a faucet overnight or longer will be the most heavily polluted. So when you draw water from a tap that has not been in use for awhile, allow the water to flow for about thirty seconds before using it for drinking or cooking.
Even when the water has not been standing for a long time, the change in water pressure when you suddenly turn on a faucet can cause pollutants to break loose from pipes and fixtures. So when you are drawing tap water for drinking or cooking, try to remember to turn the water on gradually, then wait about ten seconds before filling your container.
Got Fluoride? The same company that came up with asbestos also created Fluoride. What a coincidence that they produce two of the worst chemicals now existing on this planet. It’s a class 2 environmental toxin, second only to arsenic in its danger as a biochemically reactive poison. No proof that Fluoride strengthens teeth, yet it is still being regularly pumped into public water supplies. The primary use of Fluoride was originally for killing rats and cockroaches. It was also used in Nazi Germany ghettos and prison camps to sterilize the human inmates, so let’s keep it out of our dog’s water! Osteosarcoma (bone cancer) is on the rise in dogs and one reason is very likely the fluoridation of water.
While the best thing for the entire family is a whole house filtration system, they can be rather costly. Still, there are ways to improve our drinking water, cooking water and water for dogs.
Here are some options
A countertop reverse osmosis water filter is a great choice if you can do it. This filters water in several stages. To give you an idea of the power of one of these units, check out the numbers in the blue box. Tap water filters are helpful. They don’t take out nearly as many elements as an RO water filter, but they are far better than nothing. They are also easy to install and use, and may give you filtered water for cooking. Pitcher water filters are cheap and still better than tap water. They won’t remove the fluoride but they will reduce copper, mercury and cadmium.They are annoying to fill at times but worth the benefits. At least they
do a good job of getting out the chlorine. It’s also convenient to leave it on the counter closest to the dog water bowl. (I never serve my dogs refrigerated water since it’s harder for the stomach to handle.)
If times are tough and filtering water for dogs isn’t in the cards right now, fill a container (glass is best) with water and let stand 24 hours. The chlorine will dissipate in that time.
