How to tell your pet is experiencing heatstroke?

7 months ago

The weather is often extremely hot these days, sometimes people call on the angel in charge of the sun to assist us with bringing it down a little bit, but do you also know that the weather may affect your pets? Right, your cats and dogs could get heat stroke.

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It is easier for humans to adapt to this weather to a reasonable extent because we may decide to take off the extra layer of cloth we have on but our dear pets, cannot properly regulate their body temperature.

Heat stroke in dogs and cats is a severe life-threatening situation where their body temperature gets so high to the point where it causes serious consequences like; organ failure, and even death.

Some animals would most likely get more heat stroke than others, overweight animals, pets with thick coats, very old or young animals, flat-faced breeds, and animals that have pre-existing conditions that affect the lungs, heart, and airway.

Dogs especially are not so good with dissipating body heat, when a dog is going through heat stroke, he may experience dry or sticky gums, elevated breathing rates, bruised gums, disoriented or lethargic appearance, and even seizures.

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The body temperature of a dog could elevate rapidly, sometimes within the space of a few minutes. So, leave your pet in an environment where there is no access to shade or water on a very hot day, exercise during hot weather, or be left in a car with the windows and doors tightly shut.

With consistent exposure to heat, the condition of the dog continues to get worse, as he begins to show signs of shock, pale mucous membranes with blue or white gum, it also displays a drop in blood pressure and a very rapid heartbeat. After this, the pupils begin to dilate, the pulse becomes irregular, and the dog has muscle tremors.

With all these in place, the dog may become lethargic and unwilling to move, he may begin to defecate or urinate uncontrollably, and then collapse

Dogs try to cool off on their own through panting and blood vessel expansion, when a dog pants, they evaporate moisture from their nasal passages, tongues, and the lining of their lungs, this helps them cool as air passes over the moist tissue.
They also try to cool off through vasodilation. The blood vessels especially in the ears and face would expand and bring overheated blood closer to the surface to experience cooling.

Heat stroke is a case of a medical emergency, finding a way to reduce body temperature is the first thing to do, you could pour cool water over the head, stomach, armpit, and feet of the affected pet, it is either you pour cold water or you apply a cold compress with a cloth. Ensure there is a consistent airflow across the dog to help increase evaporative heat loss until treatment is administered.

While heatstroke occurs naturally, some contributing factors may worsen the situation or make it happen most likely;

Medical conditions like cardiac disease, hypothyroidism, and laryngeal paralysis, are great contributing factors.
Overweight and obese dogs would most likely suffer from heatstroke.
Very young and very old dogs are more susceptible.
Being confined in an enclosed space.
When a dog is out of shape and gets into an excessively hot surrounding, he is vulnerable to heat stroke.
Not taking in a sufficient amount of water.

Your dog would want to do anything to make you happy, so even if you want to run with them under very hot weather, they would gladly go with you. When you understand what is at stake with heat stroke, you will be able to control your exercise routine and consider the safety of your pet whilst at it.