If you read one emergency article on this site, make it this one. In Indian conditions, heat stroke is the emergency most likely to happen to an ordinary dog on an ordinary day, and it is the one where what the owner does in the first ten minutes changes the outcome.
Recognise it
Dogs cool almost entirely by panting. When panting cannot keep up, core temperature climbs and organs begin to fail, the gut lining, the kidneys, the clotting system, the brain.
Signs, roughly in order of progression:
- Frantic, noisy panting that does not settle when the dog stops moving
- Bright red gums and tongue
- Thick, ropey drool
- Restlessness, then unsteadiness or stumbling
- Vomiting or diarrhoea, sometimes with blood
- A glazed, vacant expression
- Collapse, seizures, unconsciousness
The most dangerous misreading: a dog that has been panting hard and then goes quiet and weak is not recovering. It is deteriorating.
What to do, in this order
1. Get out of the heat. Shade, indoors, air conditioning if available.
2. Start cooling immediately. Do not wait until you reach a vet.
This is the part that matters most and the part most owners get wrong by hesitating. The damage accumulates every minute the core temperature stays high, and cooling begun before transport gives the best chance.
- Pour or hose cool water continuously over the whole body
- Concentrate on the neck, armpits, groin and belly, where large blood vessels run close to the surface
- Get air moving over the wet coat, a fan, or the car window open while you drive. Evaporation is what does the work; wet fur with no airflow does much less
3. Offer small amounts of cool water to drink if the dog is conscious and can swallow. Do not force it, and do not pour water into the mouth of a dog that is not fully alert.
4. Go to a vet, while continuing to cool in the car.
Even a dog that looks completely recovered needs seeing. The internal damage, to the gut, kidneys and clotting system, can declare itself hours later, and dogs die a day after apparently recovering. This is not a case where looking better means being better.
What not to do
Do not use ice or ice-cold water. Surface blood vessels constrict in response, which traps heat in the core and can slow overall cooling. Shivering also generates heat. Cool or tepid water, applied continuously, is what you want.
Do not cover the dog in wet towels and leave them there. A soaked towel left in place becomes a heat blanket. If you use towels, keep replacing them with freshly cooled ones, and understand that running water plus airflow is better.
Do not give any medication. Human antipyretics, paracetamol, ibuprofen, are toxic to dogs and do nothing for heat stroke, which is not a fever.
Do not assume recovery. See above.
Do not delay to find the "best" clinic. The nearest vet, now.
Prevention, which is where this is actually won
Walk timing. Before sunrise and after dark in summer. Late morning to late afternoon is off-limits, regardless of how enthusiastic your dog is.
Test the ground. Press the back of your hand to the road or pavement for five seconds. If you cannot hold it there comfortably, your dog cannot walk on it, and this is about burnt pads as well as heat load.
Never leave a dog in a parked vehicle. Not with the windows cracked, not for five minutes, not in the shade. Interiors become lethal within minutes.
Water everywhere, indoors and out, refilled through the day.
Shade that stays shade. A patch that is shaded at 10am is in full sun by noon; a dog tied or confined there has no options.
Know your dog's risk:
- Flat-faced breeds, Pugs, Bulldogs, Boxers, Shih Tzus, are at substantially higher risk, because their airways simply cannot move enough air to cool by panting. In an Indian summer this is the single most important thing to know if you own one
- Overweight dogs
- Thick double-coated breeds: Huskies, German Shepherds, Saint Bernards
- Very young and very old dogs
- Dogs with heart or airway disease
Do not shave a double-coated dog to keep it cool. The undercoat insulates against heat as well as cold, and shaving removes protection from sun on the skin. Brush out the dead undercoat instead.
Exercise sensibly. A dog will keep playing past the point of safety because it is enjoying itself. That judgement is yours, not the dog's.
For community and street dogs
Water is the intervention. A shallow bowl outside a gate, refilled daily through summer, does more good than almost anything else available to an ordinary person, and shaded ground that stays shaded through the afternoon matters nearly as much.
The bottom line
Frantic panting that will not settle, brick-red gums, wobbliness. Get into shade, pour cool water over the body continuously, get air moving across the wet coat, and cool while you travel.
No ice. No ice water. No wet towels left in place. No human medication.
And go to a vet even if your dog seems fine afterwards. This is a condition that can kill a day later in a dog that looked recovered.
Panting, vomiting and lethargy after time outdoors in summer is a heat question before it is a stomach question. Treat it as heat until proven otherwise.