heat stroke in dogs can be a rapid killer so learning how to cool a dog
down quickly and prevent heatstroke might just save your dog's life join me
in this video where I run through the five key steps to cool a dog down
quickly hi I'm dr. Alex from ourpetshealth.com helping you and your dog to
live a healthier happier life so think about subscribing if that's something
that you're interested in now don't underestimate the importance of cooling
your dog down quickly if you think that they are developing heatstroke in one
study dogs with heatstroke who are cooled by their owners had a 38 percent
chance of dying and that's compared to a 61 percent chance of dying in those dogs
who were not cooled by their owners make no mistake learning how to cool a dog
down quickly can definitely be a lifesaver so make sure that you share
this video with all your dog owning friends and family let's jump into the
five steps and at number one we have to stop any activity move your dog into the
shade or a cooler location and encourage your pet to drink some cool water cool
water is actually better than really cold water and any water is better than
nothing a hot dog quickly becomes a dehydrated
dog and this not only reduces the ability of panting to keep their body
cool it can also be responsible for some of
the complications we see in heatstroke in dogs
dehydration exacerbates organ damage and so makes heatstroke that much more
dangerous carrying water is so important and it is one of my eleven tips to
keeping a dog cool in summer and preventing heatstroke in the first place
so make sure you check out my video that's linked up here and down in the
description below so the second step to cool a dog down quickly is to spray and
soak their coat with tepid or lukewarm water so you might think that using cold
water would be best but this will actually cause your pets body
temperature to become higher and the reason for this is that the cold water
actually causes the outside blood vessels to constrict or become much more
narrow and this effectively has the effect of trapping the heat within the
body's core and that causes a dog's body temperature to climb rather than cool
so using a spray bottle of water bottle hose or even standing your dog in a
stream or a lake will do the job it's hot out then the chances are that all of
these sources won't be too cold as the water in your dog's fur and that price
will have a cooling effect on your dog keeping their coat wet clearly is
therefore important and so be ready to add more water as needed just to keep
them down so my third step in how to cool a dog down quickly is to use a fan
to blow air over your dog this air movement helps to speed up the rate of
evaporation and so helps the dog to cool down that much faster you'll have felt
this yourself getting out of the water on a hot day if there's no wind you'll
feel hot but if there's a breeze you can actually end up feeling quite cold even
when the temperature outside is really high as well as using a fan then you
could move your dog into a spot that's in the wind preferably in the shade too
and when you're driving your dog to the vet you can also just open all the
windows as well as turn on the air conditioning copter for my fourth
cooling step is one to use if your dog has collapsed with heatstroke at home place
an ice pack frozen peas or whatever you have to hand in your dog's groin under
that armpits or on the side of their neck all of these areas are whether
really big blood vessels run which don't constrict to a degree that will trap
heat in the same way that's soaking your dog with cold water will any ice pack
should be wrapped or event cold injury to the skin and their location should be
moved every and a 15-20 minutes or so right my fifth and final step to cool a
dog down quickly is to cover them with a wet towel a towel has the ability to
hold a large amount of water and if a wet towel is placed over a damp dog and
being in a breeze too is even better then it will just help cool your dog
down faster because the towel is not in direct contact with the skin it won't
actually cause narrowing of the blood vessels that the cold water will and as
well as becoming very cold to wick heat away from your dog's body it will also
reduce the need for you to keep adding water to your dog's fur this is clearly
ideal if you're driving to the vet alone with your dog in the back cooling effect
can last much longer without you needing to keep stopping and adding
to that coke so those are the five steps for how to call a dog down quickly move
your dog to a cooler location and encourage your pet to drink cool water
spray and soak their coat with tepid lukewarm water blow air over your dog
ice pack your dog's groin armpits and neck area and place soap towels over
your dog if you've carried out all of these steps then clearly there is one
more vital part to ensuring that your dog survives heat stroke and I've
already alluded to this it is to take your dog to the vet as quickly as
possible so from the same study that I mentioned at the start it was also
reported that if a dog was presented to the vet clinic within 90 minutes of
developing heatstroke then their chance of dying was 27% so about a 1 in 4
chance of dying if though it took longer than 90 minutes then 62% of dogs died
which is more like 2 in 3 and for those dogs that were cooled by their owner and
presented to the vet within 90 minutes well 100% of them survived clearly there
is a risk of death with any dog who develops heatstroke but these figures
they really just highlight how important both cooling a dog down quickly and
rapidly transporting your dog to the vet can be if you know what to do and now
you do then it will only take 5 to 10 minutes to start cooling your dog down
quickly and this is time very well spent if at all possible you should then call
ahead to let your vet know that you're coming and this will give them some time
to get ready to treat your dog as soon as you step foot in the veterinary
clinic again time is of the essence remember though that if you're driving
open the windows and turn on the air conditioning and while time is crucial
Drive Safely having an accident will not help your dog preventing heatstroke is
clearly better than trying to treat it so make sure you check out my 11 tips to
keep your dog cool in summer that's linked in the card on the screen here
like this video if you found it helpful please share it with your friends and
family and until next time i'm dr. alex from our pets health because their
family