We live in southern LA (cajun - not wine country) on the state's last barrier island about 50 miles after you pass the exit to Nowhere, LA...Grand Isle. We spend a lot of time on the GOM beach with our 9 month old Malinois. She loves to chase the waves as they roll onto the beach - actually more like tries to rip the top of the waves to shreds with her mouth which makes her injest quite a bit of saltwater. The 1-2 miles walk back to the house tends to give her plenty of time to puke most of it up but have noticed lately that she has severe - uncontrollable - diahria (sp?) for about an hour after hitting the beach (by uncontrollable I mean she will be walking down the beach, tail goes straight up, and her business end launches a 1-2 ft stream/we learned quickly to walk upwind on the way back home). We provide her with freshwater before we leave the beach. Anyone have similar problems and is there any risk or concerns with this reaction (suspect I would have similar issues if I drank that much saltwater...)

We have also heard two different opinions on saltwater and fur. One opinion is the saltwater is good for the fur (but bad for the paw pads) and only a quick freshwater rinse (no shampoo) is necessary. The other side of the opinion fence suggests a full shampoo bath after spending time in the ocean.

Since our Mal is an inside/outside companion (inside most of the time), we have found that just rinsing the dog off (w/o shampoo) tends to lead to a stinky Mal in about 4 days so we use a gentle shampoo after each luau adventure.

My male dog tries to kill the waves as well. To save your dog from the screaming diarreah and possibly save some teeth (we have a rock coast here, no sand) I would suggest getting a toy that floats. The go-fer balls Ed sells are nice, if not one of the floating kongs, to keep her mouth occupied.

When I lived in CT I had one client whose dog needed a fresh water rinse after salt water swimming. Unfortunately for her... the shore front property she owned meant she had a wet airedale nearly 18 hrs a day. If you must wash, find a high quality shampoo.

It's great that your pup likes the water! Definately get her a floating toy. She will still ingest the water, but not as much. The salt water makes a great laxitive as you noticed <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> but I've never had any problems in relation to the poops. She'll also learn to 'try' to not ingest the water.

I live on an island and water is an everyday occurence. I usually rinse the dogs off with fresh water and leave it at that. Shampooing happens about every two weeks, with a gentle, mild shampoo. (I like the aloe and oatmeal shampoo by Vet solutions). If you have really soft water, maybe that is making your girl 'sticky'. Add a couple of TBS. of apple cider vinegar to a bucket of rinse water and try that. (also good for the skin). Every now and then the dogs are left salty and that can make them itch. Never had any problems with pads and their pads are in great shape. Took the advice of another board member(Thanks Lynn!)and add zinc to their food.

Salt water has a lot of benefits (depending on how clean the water is in your area) faster wound healing, kills fleas and ticks, nice body scrub! Just monitor the occurence of red tide in your area and the jellyfish.

Swimming is the best exercise your dog can get, really good for the joints, less impact and good muscle building. Have fun!

Wow, I am really glad this subject came up. First off my dogs get the same projectile pooping after swimming in the ocean. They use salt water in liquid laxatives for cleansing before surgeries on humans so that would not worry me. It's great for a natural cleansing on the dog as well as yourself <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> But I too am concerned with the salt on the skin. My brother lives on Carolina Beach, NC and came home for a visit with his GSD Faeghan. She is getting terrible skin infections. He rinses her off with fresh water after every swim and shampoos every few weeks. She is on a natural holistic dry with canned mackeral and still getting these patches of infection. My question is..is the salt water causing her skin to dry too much in return causing her to scratch and opening wounds and then getting infected. She is on and off antibiotics all the time now. She gets infection on her chest and above the tail. I looked for fleas and found none. He does use frontline or advantage one of those to control those critters. He also does not vaccinate so I know it's not an adverse reaction to vaccinations. What are anyone's thoughts on this and what can he do to prevent and cure this problem...Thanks

Karmen, how is the water quality where your brother lives? Lots of factors can affect it. (Offshore dumping, factory wastes, sewage) Have the dog checked for staph infections. (My dog had some bumps break out on her chest and it turned out to be staph. And you know some forms of staph can be very resistant to certain antibiotics).

Also fungal infections, to which can be lots of different kinds. After working professionally in scuba diving, that wonderful saltwater is not so wonderful when your wet all the time. Fungus loves that! If the dog is rinsed off but not drying quickly enough, could be fungus. Maybe he would have to help her along and towel dry her.

Also sea creatures. Twice a year we get 'Sea Itch' The larvae of the thimble jelly fish imbed themselves in your skin and make your life miserable for at least 10 days. Raised red bumps and lots of itching.

On the limited information, I would consider staph. Do the bumps go away and come back? Sometimes in different places? A staph infection can be so easy to get and so hard to get rid of.

I've never had problems with my dogs' skin and the salt water. The staph infection? It happened once and could have been from anywhere. If they don't get rinsed right away the salt makes them itchy. On another note, I am noticing that when I feed my dog the canned mackeral, she does itch. I do rinse the mackeral because of the salt in it, but she still has loose stools after eating it. So the canned is the emergency, need something quick food. Hope this helps. Good Luck.