Here is what I think

 

 

The color changed on Jesse’s face.  Her muzzle turned brown.  I posted pictures of that, and Jesse’s breeder responded immediately that she was getting too much iron, which indirectly caused the stains, and we shouldn’t feed her tap water anymore.  We should switch to bottled water.  Great idea, but the dogs already get the finest bottled water.  The tap water here comes from the Rio Grande and is not very good, so we have a reverse osmosis tap at the sink.  That’s where the water comes from to fill their water bowl.  It is every bit as good as Dasani.

 

Oh.  And the fountain on the deck.  All the dogs, residents and visitors alike, love to drink out of the mountain stream (the fountain on the deck).  Whatever is in the water there concentrates.  The fountain fills from the unfiltered tap.  Some of it the dogs drink.  Some of it evaporates.  It refills.  It cycles like that every day.  None of the dissolved solids or heavy metals escape.

 

If the fountain water had that effect on Jesse, might it have had an effect on Henry as well?  It didn’t make his face brown.  Well, maybe a little, but not a lot.  I googled “too much iron in drinking water for dogs”.  Google said it could be a problem.  The symptoms:  diarrhea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and fatigue.  Henry had diarrhea for four months.  He lost his appetite and couldn’t eat.  If he did eat anything he would go out onto the deck right after and throw it up.  He got so weak he could barely get up.  Google just described Henry.  Every vet visit we made and every test they ran couldn’t figure out why he was so sick, but maybe a google search just did.  When Henry got that weak (and couldn’t go out on the deck anymore), he quit getting worse and started to get better.  He started eating again and regained some strength.  When we saw this possible connection to drinking water, we immediately disabled and disposed of the fountain.  Don’t know if there is real cause and effect here, Jesse’s face is still brown, but if there is a connection the color may take time to fade.  No reason to take any more chances with the fountain water though.  Since then, about a month ago, Henry has been improving with no serious setbacks.  He is still a skinny little old man now, but he’s a loveable and happy presence.  His appetite is steady, and with no worries about him getting overweight, we’re letting him eat more than he has ever eaten before.  A month ago, we were talking to the vet, arranging his cremation, and working out how it would go if he didn’t make it through the weekend.  We were planning a summer trip without him.  Now, Henry is a part of our summer plans.

 

Here is his charming overgrown face.

 

It would be trimmed, but the last time the groomer was here a month ago there didn’t seem to be any point to it, so we pulled him out of the process.  Next Saturday, he and Jesse both have a date with the groomer.