Dehydration - Best way to treat

Question

Hey, I have a prac report to do for Biology. In the case study, there is an animal that is dehydrated. A question asks whether to administer water or an isotonic solution intravenously to treat the condition.

The answer that came to me off the bat was water. Seeing as the red blood cells would've shrivelled due to dehydration, it makes sense for water (that is hypotonic to the cells) to counter the effect of dehydration. But there is something about injecting water into veins that just sounds wrong. Can't something extremely hypotonic like water be damaging to the cell, maybe cause too great an influx of water into the cell?

The second option appears to be wrong, since an isotonic solution wouldn't really change anything.

I can only think of water being the correct answer but I have my doubts. Can someone explain to me which is correct? Thanks.

Answer 1

By drinking a lot of water of through an IV!

Injecting water simply dilutes the blood and makes you feel dizzy!

Answer 2

when the red blood cell shrunk, administrating and isotonic solution will make it become normal again..

to think that hypotonic solution can counter effect the dehydration is totally wrong since after u inject that kind of solution(hypotonic), you will have other probs that is swelling of RBC

and your second tought for your second option also wrong..of coz isotonic solution will not make any changes in NORMAL person..but it WILL make difference in DEHYDRATED person..in dehydrated person, the molarity of the blood plasma is not isotonic..what is meant by isotonic?

isotonic is the concentration of solution same with normal blood plasma..so when a person is dehydrated, the blood plasma is not normal and of coz isotonic solution will make a change..rite?the tonicity in dehydrated plasma is not the same with the tonicity of normal blood plasma..both are not isotonic relative to each other