Water poisoning on dogs and other heat issues

in #dogs4 years ago

The weather is hot. The dog is looking at you like he doesn't know what to do with himselve. You both are ducking the sun and the heat. You decide to take your precious pooch to the water to cool off. But after a while being around the water you dog is acting weird. Acting nausious and lethargic. A good change the dog has a water poisoning going on. Be alert!


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Accidents with dogs and heat happen more often than we realize. The ones that often hot the news are the ones of dogs left by owners in cars with the windows shut, where the temperature starts to heat up. But other situations can also be very dangerous to dogs and it is good to be aware of them.




Active cooling on dogs

One of the mistakes o dog owners can make is when seeing your dog so hot is that you dump cold water over his back and head to cool him off. Absolute no go! Dogs loose their heat through their tongue and through the little pillows on their paws. So when actively cooling, these are the places you go to. Cool the paws!

What happens if when your dog is hot, his vessels dilate to get a better bloodflow to cool of. When dumping water on top of him all of a sudden, the vessels close up very fast and the heat in the body has nowhere to go, creating a dangerous situation.




Water poisoning

This is also really a dangerous one because the effects always happen in the aftermath. Some dogs really tend to 'eat' (drink) a lot of water while playing in it. Or when there is an active hose in the water they really want to get as much as possible water from it. It looks funny and also you have the initial idea that your dogs is enjoying the water he is drinking, maybe because throughout the day you had the feeling he should be drinking a little bit extra. Dangerous situations! In this particular situation dogs get such a gigantic inflow in water that the balance of their blood can get disproportioned.

And if it isn't too much you can also see later on on the colour of the urine from the dog that he really drank too much. The urine will be entirely clear in stead of a bit yellow in there. Often the dog has to pee three or
more times within the hour afterwards, which is clearly too much.





See, it looks really funny.But the dog is slurping tons of water in no time without even realizing it. When all this water hits the digestive system the balance of Natrium and Kalium gets shook, giving the dog a good chance of a heart attack.




What to do?

Simple as that. When you suspect something is not okay with your dog due to heat or water management, visit your local vet as fast as you can. They have the options to start IVs with proper medication and check the blood of the dog to see what is going on.

Don't wait because it 'might' get better. Be kind to your dog, he deserve the best treatment as well!