Surviving the Heat: Understanding Heat Stroke in Pets and Preventive Measures
As the temperatures begin to rise due to summer, today's episode addresses a pressing concern that pet owners should be keenly aware of, especially during the scorching days ahead: heat stroke. Heat stroke is a serious condition that can occur in pets when their body temperature rises above normal due to prolonged exposure to high temperatures, humidity, and their limited ability to regulate heat. Dogs and cats, in particular, are vulnerable to heat stroke as they rely on panting as their primary cooling mechanism, which may not be adequate during hot weather. I will explain the key factors contributing to heat stroke in pets, shedding light on the leading causes and preventive measures.
Listen in as I explain the significance of proactively lowering a pet's body temperature before reaching a veterinary clinic, which has shown promising results in improving their prognosis. Recognizing the signs of heat stroke and promptly seeking veterinary assistance, regardless of initial cooling attempts, becomes crucial in preventing severe consequences. Join us to discover essential preventive measures, including the importance of never leaving a dog unattended in a hot car, providing ample shade and water during outdoor activities, avoiding exercise during the hottest times of the day, and ensuring regular water breaks to keep pets hydrated and cool.
What You’ll Learn:
Who is at risk for heat stroke.
What causes heat stroke.
Common signs that our pets are suffering from heat stroke.
How pets often get heat stroke.
How to check your dog's heart rate.
What steps to take if your pet is showing signs of heat stroke.
How to lower your pet’s body temperature.
How heat stroke is treated and prevented.
Ideas Worth Sharing:
“It has been found that lowering your pet’s body temperature before they even get into the veterinary clinic has shown significant improvements in their outcome.” - Tyler Sugerman
“When dogs are locked in cars on hot days, even with the windows cracked a little bit, it still heats up really quickly in there.” - Tyler Sugerman
“It is critical that even if you do cool your pet down with water that you seek veterinary help as soon as possible because heat stroke can lead to very serious organ damage and death if it is not treated quickly.” - Tyler Sugerman
Resources Mentioned:
ASPCA 888-426-4435 or pet poison helpline 855-764-7661
Read The Transcript:
Welcome to Vetsplanation. I'm your veterinary host, Tyler, or you can call me Suggs. This podcast is about educating pet parents about what is going on with their furry little loved ones. As an emergency veterinarian, I understand how hard it is to explain complex diseases in terms that are understandable for pet parents in a few short minutes before the next critical case comes in.
In this podcast, we can dive deeper into understanding of what our pets are going through and break down those complex medical terms into easier to understand chunks of information.
Just a quick disclaimer: this podcast is for informational purposes only. This is not meant to be a diagnosis of your pet. If you have questions about diagnostics or treatment options, please talk to your veterinarian about those things.
Remember, we are all practicing veterinary medicine, and medicine is not an exact science. Your veterinarian may have different treatment options. The information I provide here is to help pet parents, and it's not related to my place of work. I'm here for you guys to provide free information and knowledge.
If you like our podcast, consider sharing this podcast with at least one friend or someone else who has pets and could benefit from this.
Now, let's jump into this week's episode.
Tyler Sugerman: Hey everybody, welcome back to the Vetsplanation, where we discuss the important topics related to veterinary medicine. I'm your host, Dr. Sugerman, or you can call me Suggs. And today, we're talking about a really serious issue that's going to be happening now that we're getting into summertime, and that pretty much all pet parents should be aware of. That's heatstroke.
So, let's talk about what heatstroke is first. Heatstroke is a really serious condition that can occur in pets when their body temperature rises above the normal range. So, normal range really quickly is usually about 99.5 to 102.5 for our pets. And it's commonly due to prolonged exposure to high temperatures or humidity or even the fact that they just can't get rid of their heat effectively like we can.
So, it's important to note that dogs and cats are particularly susceptible to heatstroke because they don't sweat like we do. They really rely on panting in order to be able to cool down, which isn't always enough when we get into these really hot weather days.
So, who is at risk for heatstroke? Any animal is at risk for having a heatstroke; any animal, any age. There are some pets though that are at higher risk for heatstroke.
The first group we usually talk about is called the brachycephalic pets. This usually means that these are our pets who have a short muzzle or a short nose. The most common ones are going to be bulldogs or Frenchies, French bulldogs, Pugs, even for our cats, the Persian cats.
They get a special syndrome that's called brachycephalic syndrome. That's where the tissue in their throat actually swells, which causes them not to be able to breathe very well, which also increases the amount of heat in their body being generated by all their cells in their body and that can lead to the death unfortunately.
Also, overweight pets and elderly pets are at risk because they have to use more of their muscles to be able to pant, which also means that they're generating more heat than more muscles that they use.
Patients who suffer from heart disease because their heart is being overworked while they're trying to get rid of all this heat, plus dogs who have laryngeal paralysis or collapsing trachea. I've already talked about collapsing trachea in episode 30, and so you can go back and listen to that. But this is where their airways just cannot open enough for heat to be able to escape.
Also, some thick coated dogs and dark coated dogs are at high risk as well. The dark coated dogs, they absorb more of the heat because of the color of their fur, while the thick coated dogs usually have that heat trapped under all of that fur. So, let's talk about how they commonly get heatstroke.
The most common cause of heatstroke is going to be exposure to high temperatures. This usually happens when dogs are locked in cars, even with the windows cracked a little bit, but it still heats up pretty quickly in there, or cats who climb into the dryer without the pet parent knowing and turn it on. It can be from being outside during the summer with no shade or no water. It can also happen when our pets are exercised in a new environment that their body's just not used to yet.
We, in Washington had some really cold days and then suddenly it was 90 degrees one day. That's not a good time to exercise them cause their body has not acclimated to that yet. Same thing for if you move or take them into a new environment on vacation or something, it actually takes about 60 days for their body to get used to that new environment.
So, we don't want to take them out and exercise them vigorously during those time periods, even if it's not a hundred degrees at that place. Even if it's only eighty degrees and it's in a new place that dog’s not used to, that can lead to heatstroke.
So, what are some of the signs that our pets are suffering from heatstroke? Some common clinical signs are going to be that they'll have like excessive panting, they'll be drooling quite a lot. They'll have a really rapid heart rate, so if you take their elbow and put it down towards their chest, wherever their elbow hits their chest, that's essentially where their heart is, you should be able to feel in that area and feel their heart to be able to see if it's beating really quickly.
The best way to take a heartbeat is, put your hand on their chest, and then count for a minute their heart rate, depending on like how big or smaller your dog is. Smaller dogs tend to have a higher heart rate, bigger dogs have a lower heart rate.
So, big dogs like if it's 80, I'm not terribly surprised, but for our small dogs, they can get up to 130, 140, even 150 sometimes and that's still going to be something that's more normal for our smaller dog. But it shouldn't be up in like the 200s for pretty much anybody. So, if you start seeing those signs.
There can be vomiting, diarrhea, and also, bloody diarrhea or bloody urine too. They can be very lethargic, meaning that they're just tired, they don't want to do anything and collapse is another big one. So, if you have a thermometer, you can take their temperature rectally. For a normal temperature for our pets, is going to be between like 98.5 and 102.5 like I said.
And heatstroke typically occurs at 105 even though the first stages of heatstroke actually do happen when their temperature is normal. So, don't be surprised if you see all these clinical signs and their temperature is normal at first, takes up until like true heatstroke is going to be at 105 but they may start showing signs before that.
So, what steps should you take if you suspect that your pet has had heatstroke? If your pet's showing signs of heatstroke or any other person's pet showing signs of heatstroke, it's important to get them out of that hot environment immediately. You want to move them to some really cool or shaded area, and give them access to water. You could also run cool water over them, that helps lower their body temperature as well.
It has been found that lowering their body temperature before they even get into the clinic has shown significant improvements in their outcome, and the organs are less likely to be affected.
So, one study showed that if pets were cooled prior to the hospital, there was only about 19% of them that died versus 49% that were not cooled prior to coming to the hospital. So, it's a significant improvement, so you can cool them down really quickly. Literally just wash them down with water very quickly, dry them off really quickly with a towel, and put them into the car and get them to the hospital.
Don't put that towel over them though. Putting towels over them, even wet towels actually trap in all of that heat because we're trapping all the heat between their skin and that wet towel. So, don't put towels over them, just wet them down, dry them off very quickly, get them in the car. You can put the air conditioning on in there cause then it makes a very cool environment and helps to cool them down as well.
But it is very critical even if you do cool them down with water, that you still seek veterinary attention as soon as possible because heatstroke can lead to very serious organ damage and death if it's not treated, and you may not see those signs initially, but if you start seeing those signs and then you bring them in, it might be too late. So, definitely bring them in immediately.
How do we diagnose it? Unfortunately, this is one that it really is based off of the history that you give us. There are lots of things that can cause the body temperature to be elevated.
So, we have to know was this pet exposed to a hot environment? It's really important to be honest with us about this because everyone makes a mistake. We understand that things don't happen on purpose. Cats get put in dryers all the time because they crawl into all the clothes because it's nice and warm, you close the door, turn it on, and they get stuck in there.
Dogs, you think that you're at a really nice cool environment. You've parked by a tree thinking it's going to be nice and shady, and unfortunately, it's just not shady enough and they get heatstroke like we understand those things. We just want you to bring them in.
If a pet comes in with the temperature of above 105, it's impossible for us to know is that from a fever or is this from heatstroke? There's no tests that I can do to say one or the other. So, we do need to know in your history, what that pet was doing at that time.
It's because we treat fevers in hypothermia, which means high body temperature very differently. We still usually perform things like blood work and checking on how well that pet is clotting. It actually does affect the way that they clot their blood in multiple different organs, we're looking at all of those organs on that blood work as well.
How is heatstroke treated in pets? So, treatment for heatstroke in pets usually involves lowering the body temperature quickly with supportive care, but we also need to make sure we don't lower it too much.
This goes the same for when you're at home trying to lower their body temperature. If they get down to 103 and then you're checking in with your thermometer, then you need to stop all that cooling stuff that you're doing. They go too cool. It actually can be detrimental the other way. So, even though their body temperature normally is at 102-5, we want to stop at 103.
And then we want to give them things like IV fluids to help support their body. They're already very dehydrated by the time they come in there because they've lost so much water.
We want to give them oxygen therapy to help their brain because the brain can be really affected as well.
And then medications that we may need are going to be things like controlling seizures or antibiotics, just things to try to help support their body through this.
And in some cases, pets do need to be hospitalized for monitoring. It depends on just how bad they were, how hot they were, what clinical signs that we're seeing. This may be that they're only in the hospital for 12 to 24 hours, making sure all their blood work looks okay, and we don't see any other clinical signs and sending them home, versus this could be that we start seeing really bad clinical signs and they're in the hospital for days or a week, they may need things like plasma transfusions or blood transfusions depending on how bad it is.
Then also they may be in oxygen for a while as well if their brain starts to swell, then we need to bring down all that brain swelling. So, it really depends on how hot they were and just like what clinical signs they have as to how long they end up being in the hospital.
How do we prevent heatstroke? One, just never leaving your pet in the car unattended. We don't know how hot it gets in in there. We've seen all of those videos of people who've sat in a car and seeing how they responded to it, and have seen that it cannot take very long before that car becomes extremely hot.
You can avoid strenuous exercise on hot and humid days, so that way they don't overheat because they can't get rid of enough heat. Giving your pet access to shade and water when they're outside. And then offering your pet frequent water breaks. If you are exercising them, going for hikes and stuff, making sure to like constantly offer them.
Avoid walks during like the hottest times of the day. Try to do it in the mornings when it's not so hot. And then keeping your pet indoors when there's going to be times where it's going to be really hot or really humid.
So, as you can see, this is super important for just trying to make sure that our pets are safe and healthy, and they don't get heatstroke. So, if you can just remember some of those things — it's a really hot day, don't bring them outside, keep them indoors. If it's going to be really humid, same thing, keep them indoors.
If you do see signs of heatstroke, like they're panting really excessively, they are really lethargic, not wanting to move, you start seeing any sort of like bloody diarrhea during that time — anything like that, cool them off.
If you can take the temperature first, it's really helpful for us to know what their temperature was in the beginning, but cool them off immediately. Bring them into the hospital and start having their blood work ran so that way we know where we are and decide if we need to keep them in the hospital for longer.
So, my fun animal fact for today, I thought that I would do one that's based on exercise since this is something similar for heatstroke. So, I was going to talk about just the fastest animals.
So, the fastest land animal, we probably already know is going to be the cheetah. It can run up to speeds of about 75 miles per hour, but the fastest bird is going to be the Peregrine Falcon. My son did a whole report on this. He loved the Peregrine Falcon. They have a diving speed of up to 242 miles per hour, super crazy.
Then the fastest animal who has horizontal flight. So, this is diving speed for Peregrine Falcon, ones that have just horizontal flight, that's going to be the Brazilian free tailed bat, which can reach up speeds up to a 100 miles per hour.
The sailfish and the Black Marlon are going to be the two fastest sea animals. They can swim up to 22 miles per hour. Luckily, they're in the water, so hopefully they don't get heatstroke.
Okay guys, if you have any questions, as always, feel free to email me. And that's going to be all for today's episode of Vetsplanation.
Thank you for listening, and if you have any questions or topics, you want me to cover, please contact me, my email address is suggs@vetsplanationpodcast.com. So, next time, keep your pets healthy and safe. Thank you, guys.
Thanks for listening this week. If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, or you just want to say hi, feel free to email me at suggs@vetsplanationpodcast.com.
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Thank you all again for listening and we'll see you back here next week.