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Here is your public service announcement for the day...

In our heat/humidity, please keep an eye on your dogs if they spend any amount of time outside. At a herding event today a young working dog decided to cap the day off with a game of 'soccer'. She found an endless supply of humans to kick the ball for her and unlike her siblings, she didn't go cool off periodically. I noticed her come limping by and dive for shade under a tractor. We grabbed her up and took her to the house expecting a shoulder out or something structural. It was then we noticed the excessive panting, pale gums and she went down on the kitchen floor and didn't move. About 45 minutes later, we got her temp down/medicated and she was drinking on her own.

If we hadn't gotten her inside and cooled down immediately she would have most likely suffered organ damage or died.

Please pay attention to your animals, especially those that will play until they drop. As it was, a slight limp was the only give away that the dog wasn't right.

(Dog should be fine)

Tass

Thanks Tass, our neighbor lost a dog to the heat after Rita in '05. The dog was old and just couldn't take the horrific heat we suffered after Rita. My wife found one of our dogs heat stressed during that time period and was able to cool him he survived.

Good catch Tass. Another sign is glazed eyes.

Always make sure they have a good supply of water too.

My wife reminded me of using rubbing alcohol on the pads of your dog's feet to help cool the dog in an emergency.

MoJo wrote:My wife reminded me of using rubbing alcohol on the pads of your dog's feet to help cool the dog in an emergency.

In an extreme situation you can pour some under their legs in their "armpits" as well. I've had to do this to save my neighbor's dogs before. The vet said that if I hadn't done this both would have died in a matter of minutes.
I always keep rubbing alcohol in my first aid kits, and keep a couple of bottles in the car just in case. I have older Aussie's that have thick coats and can't take the temps in South Texas.
Google "uses for rubbing alcohol" sometime, you might be surprised at what you find out.

We have a nine year old English Mastiff over 200 pounds. Heat can kill such a dog very easily. This summer, we actually put insulating panels from Lowes all around her giant crate on the patio, cut a hole in the back, stuffed a window ac unit up to it, and draped heavy blankets over the front. She fell in love with her air conditioned dog house. It was cheap and easy. It stays 74 degrees in there all the time. I figured if she wouldn't use it, we could rent it out to a short person.