Hello everyone,
I was at a mini conference in Champaign the other day, and the topic was on heat stroke. It is interesting that we finally have summer this week here in central Illinois.! And it showed up with the heat and humidity.
And you would think that later in the summer is when we see patients that may be suffering from heat stroke, but the opposite is true. We see patients early in the summer with this condition. Why?
The body has an amazing ability to deal with heat- us included. The presenter shared that in humans, (who can sweat- dogs do not) in the beginning of the summer, the sweat we produce has 65 ng/ml(nanograms) of sodium. When the temperature gets very warm, and the body's physiology is allowed 12-14 days to acclimate, the human sweat has only 3-4 ng/ml of sodium! Our body starts to learn how to conserve the sodium in our body, yet still create liquid on the skin, which allows us to 'keep our cool'.
Our dogs do similar things, so when we don't allow then that ease in to the transition, is when our dogs can get into trouble.
The thing to do is call the Dr office right away, and then try to get the pet cooled down. Wetting the paws, ears, and mouth can help as you are transporting the dog to the clinic.
The studies have found that permanent damage is related to the temperature the pet is at and how long he/she is at that temperature.
So everyone take it easy in the shade this weekend!
