Borax and pets

[burto]

I would like to add borax to my pool but afraid it might hurt my dog. I have a 2 year old golden retriever and I can't keep her out of the pool without keeping her in a kennel all day. She is always drinking from the pool even though I keep a fresh water bowl out for her. I have also considered adding salt to soften the water, but not sure about it for the same reason. I am currently using bleach as my sanitizer. Does anyone have borax and dogs?

 

[chem geek]

See the thread Are Borates Safe to Use?. We are conservative when we suggest that people with dogs that drink from the pool shouldn't use borates. What is the weight of your dog and what is your best guess as to how much she drinks from the pool per day? A 10 kg (22 pound) dog would have to drink more than 7 cups per day to be at the No Observed Adverse Effect Level (NOAEL) and this would need to be every day since boron doesn't accumulate in the body. The level where first symptoms were seen was 3 times higher so the cutoff point is somewhere in between. Even so, if you can't teach her not to drink large amounts from the pool, the safer thing to do would be to not use the borates.

 

[burto]

Her weight is 60 pounds.

 

[chem geek]

So she'll get to the No Observed Adverse Effect Level (NOAEL) if she drinks 5 quarts of 50 ppm borate pool water every day. Like I said, the advice is conservative, but every dog is different just like every person is different. It's probably safe (unless she is really drinking over a gallon of pool water every day), but she's your dog. We have 2 cats and they hate water so I can't give you any personal experience.