Summer is almost here and every year we see a few pets that are having symptoms of overheating or heatstroke.
Signs of overheating in pets:
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Excessive panting
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Difficulty breathing
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Increased heart and respiratory rate
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Drooling
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Mild Weakness
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Collapse
Flat faced pets ( pugs, persians, ect.) are more susceptible to heat stroke because they can not pant as effectively. These pets; plus pets that are overweight, have heart or lung diseases or elderly should be kept cool and indoors as much as possible.
Don’t leave your pet in a parked car.
If you see a pet in a parked car do the following:
- Take down the car’s make, model and license-plate number.
- If there are businesses nearby, notify their managers or security guards and ask them to make an announcement to find the car’s owner.
- If the owner can’t be found, call the non-emergency number of the local police or animal control and wait by the car for them to arrive.
Interesting facts about car temperatures :
- When it’s 72 degrees Fahrenheit outside, the temperature inside your car can heat up to 116 degrees Fahrenheit within an hour.
- When it’s 80 degrees Fahrenheit outside, the temperature inside your car can heat up to 99 degrees Fahrenheit within 10 minutes.
- Rolling down the windows has been shown to have little effect on the temperature inside a car.
Strawberry Banana Popsicle
Want to make your dog a homemade Popsicle to cool them down? Check out this recipe?
http://doggydessertchef.com/2012/05/02/strawberry-banana-popsicles/
May 18-24th is National Dog Bite Prevention Week
NOW FOR THE QUESTION OF THE WEEK!!
Last week’s question was :
How does your pet get tapeworms?
And the winner is Beth Tyson who answered : by ingesting infected fleas
And this week’s question is : Why are flat faced pets more susceptible to heatstroke or overheating?
Please leave a comment to this blog with your answer or send us the answer via e mail to hospital@rockanimal.com by noon on Friday to be eligible to win the weekly prize.
** Please note , you can win more than once and you can win consecutive weeks , so keep on answering the questions! You DO NOT have to be a client of Rockdale Animal Hospital to enter or win.
Flat faced pets are more susceptible to heat stroke because they cannot pant as effectively.