Why can't dogs drink salt water?
Edwin Langworth
2025-09-24 23:51:57
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: 21
When a dog ingests salt water, the excess salt draws water from the blood into the intestines, leading to diarrhea, vomiting, and dehydration. Consuming large amounts of salt water, however, can be fatal. Dogs with toxic levels of sodium in their systems have a mortality rate higher than 50%, regardless of treatment. When too much salt builds up in a dog’s body, their cells release their water content to try and balance out the sodium disparity. This, in turn, causes a litany of serious health effects. It can cause seizures, a loss of brain cells, injury to the kidneys, and severe dehydration. If a dog with saltwater poisoning isn’t treated medically, the condition can easily lead to death. Dogs love the beach, but playing games of fetch, chasing waves, and swimming can all lead to a thirsty dog who consumes salt water. In most cases, a few mouthfuls of salt water may only cause diarrhea.
Mathew O'Connell
2025-09-24 19:02:09
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: 25
If you notice your dog drinking a tiny bit of seawater, don't fret.
Small amounts of seawater will just upset your dog's stomach, causing diarrhea.
However, large amounts of seawater are very dangerous and can cause salt poisoning and high sodium levels in the blood, known as hypernatremia.
High levels of salt will upset the fluid balance of your dog's body, drawing water from the blood into your dog's intestines.
For a dog to drink toxic amounts of seawater, they'd need to ingest around 2.2 teaspoons of salt per pound of body weight.
Considering there are about 2 teaspoons of salt in a cup of seawater, your dog would have to drink lots of seawater to reach toxic levels.
At toxic levels, dogs have a mortality rate of over 50%, making salt poisoning severe.
Other serious side effects include damage to the kidneys and brain damage.
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