I have an 8 year old Maltese, that was drinking distilled water for at least 6 months now. I changed him from tap to distilled to see if the tear stains would go away, but they are still there if I don't clean them and keep the hair short around his eyes and mouth.

What did change was his urine output..he was going constantly..and peeing on my rug, my patio where the kids play..it was so bad I had to keep a bucket of water with bleach in it to clean up on the patio from him.

But I changed back to tap water yesterday and today is the 2nd day. I have not had to clean up urine once today and I haven't noticed him peeing either..his wee pad is wet in the garage though.

So, it's tap water for him, because it's just too obvious to me that either he was drinking too much distilled water trying to get minerals maybe or quench his thirst that was not satisfied.

I also left his distilled water dish filled and placed another bowl with tap water next to it. His choice is to drink the tap water. I've filled it 2 times since yesterday.

I wonder if I should go back to tap water too? I'm going to go look up how to remineralize the distilled water. I and my son did start taking mineral supplements.

Anyones thoughts or experiences with their pets?

Love,
Prism

If it was a mineral thing I'd rather use a mineral supplement rather than let her drink chlorine, mercury and whatever the hell else is in tap water. Maybe even ACV in the distilled?

I don't use distilled. I'm still using bottled/spring water like Poland Spring and Penta because I can afford it. Not the best but to me it's better than tap. The tap here I haven't drank in years...even my cooked/medication overloaded grandmother gets a headache from drinking tap. I plan on getting some kind of purifier/or distiller eventually.

I believe the same, tap is far, far from ideal. I wonder if I remineralize the distilled with some brown rice how he'd do on that. I'm going to try that and see what he does.

I get a great deal on distilled water, 30 cents per gallon. I would rather have spring water I think..an authentic, pure spring water with the minerals.

His urine output sure has lessoned though..and that makes it very nice for me, and probably for him too.

Love,
Prism

Cooking our water doesn't make sense, though I can remember wanting to buy a water distiller, not understanding that it wasn't the same as rainwater, which was the argument in favour of it.



We've never used distilled. My bird will drink lots of clean bath (tap) water if she's in the bath with me, but I always give her filtered water in her cage. Sometimes I feel my water is weird and want to find something better (it's Culligan's). I think it's partly the plastic container that makes it seem weird.

I'd rather find a good water filter for my kitchen.

i`d use tap...we have a filter on ours that takes out the chlorine. as far as the tear stains try a teaspoon of powdered buttermilk on his food and see if that works
patty

I always leave my cats' water bowl filled with tap water. They very rarely drink it- and prefer to drink from the pond, and any plant-pots that have collected rain water!

I once had a glass of mineral water, and one of my cats stuck his head in it and started to lap it

I have a dehumidifier and use the water collected from that for my dogs.. but is this like distilled water and devoid of minerals??

My water comes from a very deep well. But there are lots of minerals in the water, so I have a carbon filter as it comes into the house and also a reverse osmosis water system under the sink. My little dog gets that water, and I drink it too.

Although, I did hear once from someone that reverse osmosis water is bad for you...

if anyone has insight into either of these two types of waters that would be greatly appreciated.

Elayne

It certainly is intriguing and disturbing that we have to question all of the different types of water available now. I myself am having many of the same questions.

I hear the arsenic in the drinking water is to help separate the sewage, and maybe to kill the bacteria as well, but I can't remember. I also don't like the smell of the chlorine. I have been reading that moving water is more oxygenated, and somehow better for your body because of this. I still drink the tap water at work when I don't have my gallon of spring water on hand. Funny how mind boggling something has become that used to be so simple.

Maybe this was mentioned already, but I'd never use distilled. It doesn't have any minerals in it and will leech other vitamins and minerals out of humans and animals. When I'm desperate and don't have anything else to drink I just add some trace mineral drops.

That's interesting that your cats symptoms stopped after beginning to drink tap water again. Hm, the tap water in MD comes out brown at times so I know I wouldn't give it to my kitten.

I honestly think a good water filter is optimal.

I was told that you should NEVER let pets drink tap water because of the chlorine, fluoride and other chemicals. They should drink PURIFIED water and ideally cats who are susceptible to kidney/bladder problems .. ie crystals, stones, etc should only drink DISTILLED water because the minerals in other typees of water contribute to the crystal and stone build up.

My dogs drink Purified, my cats drink distilled and I drink either Spring or Purified enhanced with electrolytes.

ONLY do distilled water for a day or two if they've been sick. It's actually very harmful for animals and leeches out minerals.

My cat has eye issues too and recently had some discharge that was turning brown. I changed the water filter to my $400 under sink filter (so hard to know how often to really change it) and his eyes cleared up. My homeopathic vet thinks I can use my cat as a barometer of when to change it from now on - lol!

But never do distilled more than 1 or 2 days. Filtered, yes.

Tap water quality of different regions are different. In Vancouver (B.C.), the water is basically filtered by the mountains and then is chlorinated for safety. Our water is very soft. I still use a filter to get the chlorine out though because the concentrations are getting higher as the the population is increasing.

Prism you probably can get a water analysis paper from city hall. You should look into it. Also my cats (one of the two that i have seen anyways) drinks out of the pot for our water lily which is outside.

I have drank nothing but distilled water for years and I'm in perfect health. The amount of minerals you get from water is MINUSCULE! You can get those minerals from a grape. However the toxins you're missing out on is huge. I also have never read any scientific study that backs up this claim that distilled water leetches minerals from the body. It seems that people just hear things and pass it around.

I have a white french bulldog. I learned years ago (she is now age 9) that she had to drink distilled water only. I give her MISSING LINK for the minerals and vitamins she is missing in her food. Because she is light colored, if I do not give her distilled water they run. Also, letting her stick her head out of the car window while driving causes them to run as well. I was told by some breeders to use a product you can buy in the pharmacy called COLLYRIUM for Fresh Eyes. Put your dog in between your legs while you are standing, raise an eye and drizzle the eye wash through so that any debris will come out. Pat dry after with a clean dry towel very gently. They do not like this but it stops the problem. Polland Springs or any of the other "spring waters" are not purified. Call them up and ask them what they do EXACTLY to purify theses waters and you will be shocked. Yes I notice she pees more frequently thank you for pointing that out. But she also had kidney stones when little (hereditary) so I want her to drink a lot of water to run out the crystals and stones which have now been gone and have never returned. LL

I reccomend drinking filtered water and not distilled. Distilled water is not good for people or pets to drink there is a reason your dog wouldn't drink distilled water. I think Reverse Osmosis systems are better than distilled water its good for you and your pets. A good Reverse Osmosis system will filter out all the contaminents and keep the water alkaline which is very important for you and your family. Get a system that has a polishing filter so you can make sure they add some charcoal back into the water so it still has a mineral content. I reccomend an Aquasafe system they have been around for a long time check them out at www.aquasafecanada.com

My dog is going to be 12 yrs. old this March and he's been drinking tap water still. But now for a couple months I have a Brita filter and give him that water which he will drink. Occasionally I place 1 drop of Lugol's Iodine in his water bowl.

He's still eating his raw meat diet, but can't chew bones raw or otherwise much anymore. He still doesn't have any real health problems, but he is showing his age by being a bit slower, more mellow, his teeth are still a problem, and he has a bit of arthritis in his backside and may cause him some little pains now and again.

But people comment on him often and say how healthy and spry he is for being 12.

Love,
Prism and my pal Cushy