My dog won't drink water after vaccines. Is this normal or concerning?

Question

My 8 year old Shih Tzu got his yearly vaccines and exam yesterday. Today he hasn’t drank any water and it’s past 3 pm. He has not done a lot of exercise today and are two bowls of wet food mostly mix with small amount of dry food. Is this normal after vaccines? He usually is pretty good on drinking water. Thank you. Pet's info: Dog | Shih Tzu | Male | neutered | 8 years and 5 months old | 12 lbs

Lauren Jones VMD · Accepted Answer

I'm sorry to hear that Romeo isn't feeling as well as normal. Vaccines stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies to protect against disease. As a result, it's pretty common for pets to be fairly sluggish for a day or two after receiving their vaccines while the immune system is hard at work. Some dogs can develop delayed vaccine reactions with some vomiting and diarrhea (and an associated loss of appetite), but it's not very common for their water consumption to be impacted. To answer your question more clearly - no, it's not normal that Romeo hasn't had any water at all today. You can try adding a tiny bit of low sodium chicken broth into his water to make it a little tastier, but be sure to throw it away after an hour or two, as this would otherwise need refrigeration. Another thing to try would be soaking his normal dry food with water for 10 minutes before feeding it to him to maintain his hydration. It doesn't concern me that he's a little sluggish today. However, if it continues tomorrow or if he still isn't drinking normally, you should take Romeo back to his vet to get him checked out. I hope that everything goes well!

My dog won't drink water after vaccines. Is this normal or concerning?

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