What To Do If Your Greyhound Overheats

First, don't let it happen!

Don't take your dog out when it is really hot. If you are out for even a short walk and your dog starts panting heavily with its tongue hanging out, get home right away. If you are going for a take one of our summer soakers along with a spray bottle full of ice water. Spray your dog's body frequently as you are walking. If you get home and your dog is panting heavily and is a bit wobbly, you should take its temperature. For this, you will need to have a digital or rectal thermometer handy and some vaseline. Digitals are cheaper and faster and they won't break like the glass rectal ones. Any temperature over 103 degrees and you need to get involved and react quickly. If your dogs temp is over 106 it may well die.

In the summer especially, it is always helpful to be prepared with a large bucket and a couple bags of ice in the freezer. If your dog is truly in distress from overheating, you will need lots of ice. Fill 1/4 of the bucket with cold water and then fill the bucket halfway with ice. The mixture should be sloshy. Have several towels handy and immerse a large towel into the bucket and get it totally wet. Get your dog to lie on the floor and place the large, wet cold towel over the dog. It is helpful if someone can control its lower legs so it cannot stand. Smaller towels can then be soaked and placed in the groin area and between the front legs. Speed is important. The towel will go from cold to lukewarm in about four minutes as body heat comes off your dog. Also, it helps to put some rubbing alcohol into a spray bottle and spray the dogs feet and pads.

If you do not have a vet available, and have people at home that can help, you can continue this treatment at home. While the process of cooling down continues, be sure to take the dogs temperature about every 15 minutes. Use Vaseline to lubricate the thermometer before you insert it in the rectum. Often it may take an hour to get your dogs temperature in the normal range of 101.5. It may shiver but that is irrelevant. We have personally never seen a dog go into shock from this procedure and the alternative is that it may die.

If you do have a veterinary facility available. It is best to rush your dog there while still covering it with the cold towels. Don't worry about slopping water around in your car when your dog's life is at stake. If you have a wagon or SUV, that is the best case scenario because you will need to keep cooling the dog as you rush cautiously to a veterinary facility. Once at the vet, they will immediately need to start IV fluids and, depending on the temp, may need more than one at the same time. If possible, the IV line should be going through ice water.

Many dogs will die simply because they did not get appropriate treatment or because the treatment is done at too leisurely a pace. When we are treating dogs for this here at NGAP, it looks like an emergency room effort. We recently had to do it on a dog that had been attacked by a cat, and although the temperature was not heat-related, it came in with a temperature of 106.6. We worked on that dog for 1 1/2 hours to get its temperature down below 103. We probably used about eight bags of ice. The dog, because of the infection, would have to be watched carefully.

Planning ahead is of the utmost importance. If you think about it now and do nothing, you may be ill-equipped for the emergency! A few years ago, when there was a scare of influenza and people were told to store food in case they could not go out, we did. Of course, I now have some 2-year-old canned chicken and peanut butter in the basement, but it's a small price to pay to be prepared. You can put all items you need in a plastic tub, cover it and have everything ready just in case. You may even be able to help a neighbor out if they need help.

Have a safe and happy summer!