I just realized my dog has been drinking water for a long time from a tea kettle that has a residue on the bottom. What can I do?

Wash it or empty it and remove it from the dogs reach.

I just noticed that my tea kettle has a black wet residue at the bottom. We have all been drinking water(hot and cold) out of this tea kettle for many years and never noticed this before. I have used the water in the tea kettle to refill the dogs' drinking bowl for many years. No one has seemed ill, but I'm worried that it was harmful. Does anyone know what the substance at the bottom of the kettle could be and is it harmful?

If you have been doing this for YEARS and not noticed any ill effects then everything is fine, nothing to worry about.

It depends what the kettle is made from.
If it is black it is probably just a carbon build up, will do no harm.
If it is red it is most likely rust, and again, will do no harm.

I would check for giardia since its from funky water.. That's really about all you can get from dirty water... But that's only if its been contaminated by something else..

When I lived in a small town will well water this always happened to our kettels... it has something to do with the minerals in the water, we still drank out of it.. and I'm not dead, so I'm going to assume its safe.

Thank you. I've already thrown out the kettle.

Thank you. I've been worried about my dog.

Thank you. I threw out the kettle right away and I won't make that mistake again!

Thank you very much. I've been dreadfully worried.

Thank you. There's been nothing but tap water in it from the beginning.

Thank you. It was dreadfully stupid of me not to check the kettle before and I've thrown out the kettle.

Thank you. I've thrown out the kettle.