Water is essential to life. It cools the body and carries necessary nutrients to the cells, yet plain old water sometimes gets little fanfare. Generally a dog needs at least one ounce of water for each pound of body weight per day but environmental factors, level of activity, and health condition can drive this need up much higher. With almost three-fourths of a dog’s body weight attributed to water, as little as a fifteen percent loss can cause death.
Because the canine body has sweat glands only on the nose and foot pads, it is much less efficient at heat dissipation than the human body. Dogs pant to cool themselves and anyone who has mopped up after a panting dog knows how much fluid they lose.
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