Question

On a rare warm day in San Francisco, you and a friend take your friend’s dog to Ocean Beach. Your friend’s dog enjoys fetching balls in the water and playing in the waves. You notice that the dog seems to like the taste of the ocean and drinks a lot of ocean water. You don’t think much of it until the dog gets severe diarrhea in the car on the way home. After cleaning up the mess, your friend says, “Hey this reminds me of the systems biology portion of our course when we were discussing water homeostasis in humans.”

Using the language of biology, discuss how the biological processes involved with water homeostasis relate to the diarrhea the dog suffered after drinking ocean water.

please include at least THREE biologically accurate ideas.

Answer 1

When the dog drinks salt water from the ocean, the excess sodium is tried to compensate with the water being released out from the cells to balance sodium disparity. This loss of water reduces the functionality of the cells.

This draws excess water to the intestines of the dog leading to diarrhoea. This leads to imbalance in fluid and electrolyte levels in the dog's body.

Drinking little water have mild symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting while if the quantity of water is more, the effects may be lethal . The dog looks confused, non responsive, lethargic due to increased sodium content.

Thank you.