Water consumption - do we need to go to the vets?

[TreaterAnita]

We have 2 Burmese cats - girl is 9 and boy is 4. We also have a dog. The cats used to have their own water bowl but just shunned this in favour of the dog's water bowl so we keep this topped up and they all seem happy.

This week we've been away with the dog and a friend has been checking on the cats every day. She's mentioned that the water bowl was empty every time she came round. It's not the dog's bowl, as obviously we took that with us, and isn't huge, about the size of a deep tapas dish. She seemed to think this was a lot of water (she's a cat owner too) for 2 cats to get through in 24 hours. I'm not so sure it is as they have been on a diet of dry food all week (this is their primary diet, but they do get occasional treats of tinned food when we're at home). They're not big cats by any stretch of the imagination (boy is tiny for a Burmese) but half a dish if water a day doesn't seem like a huge amount to me if you think about the volume of fluid that a human would consume, it seems about right to me pro rata.

I'm happy to take them to the vets if necessary, but they both seem to be completely happy and healthy otherwise, so I'd only be taking them because of concern about their water consumption, and I'm not convinced that I need to be (though I do really appreciate friend mentioning it). i cant monitor them now we're home as we have no way of restricting access to the dog's water and she's a big dog so drinks a lot.

Any thoughts about whether this is something to be concerned about?

[thecatneuterer]

Cats that eat mainly dried food drink an awful lot of water in comparison to those on wet food. This is because wet food supplies the majority of the liquid needs of a cat.

So unless you notice a change in the amount your cat is drinking then I wouldn't worry.

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Excess drinking is considered to be greater than 100ml per Kg weight per day. So if you have 2 average burmese cats they could be drinking up to a litre of water per day between them. So no this doesn't sound excessive in fact perhaps you need to consider access to more water.
My pets total requirement maximum for them per day is 1.9litres I actually make sure there is 4 litres on offer at anyone time.

[TreaterAnita]

Thanks both. That's reassuring. They have access to constant water when we're at home, but I'll make sure I leave extra bowls out when we're away next, and ask friend to give them some wet food too.