Dr. Lera explains why dogs can't cool off like humans do. Panting is their only heat loss method, so humidity in places like South Florida makes it nearly impossible. Short-nosed breeds are most at risk, so keep them inside between noon and 4 p.m., and if heat stroke happens, wet them down and use fans.
Hey, guys, My name is Dr. Lara here at Heron Lake Samuel Hospital. Today I'm here with Tank. Tank is a French bulldog. And so the topic that we're going to be talking about today is heat stroke. So we live down in South Florida. And one of the things with these smash face breed dogs, or what we call brachycephalic, these dogs are very prone. He's looking at mom. He wants mom. We're put him on the ground because he loves mom. So if you can't tell already. All right, there you go, buddy. And so one of the things that happens, or the way that dogs and cats exchange heat because they don't really do a good job of sweating, side point. You may notice sometimes on stainless steel tables like this, you may actually see paw prints. And those paw prints are because the pets are actually sweating, but that's not enough for them. So the way that we usually exchange heat or they will exchange heat is by breathing it off. When you live in a area like South Florida, a, it's going to be very warm, B, it's also going to be very humid. And that humidity makes it more difficult for dogs and cats to go ahead and exchange hot air that they have in their body for cool air that is outside. Now, one of the things that makes it more difficult for these French bulldogs, English bulldogs, pugs, you'll see their noses are kind of like this. What ends up happening is their anatomy is so smushed that it makes it really, really difficult to be able to exchange that air at an efficient rate. And so you want to really be on top of when you bring your dogs, even your cats that have a smashed face, outside, you don't want them to be outside for too long a period of time. If you live in an area like South Florida, especially during the time when it's hottest. So typically that for us is going to be anywhere between 12 and 3 or 12 and 4. Otherwise, if you are going to be taking them outside, usually you'll want to do it first thing in the morning or in the evening while there's really not a whole lot of sun. Okay. At the end of the day, it is something that is very important. You know, these dogs and cats are not necessarily made to be out in the heat, and we do not want to make them more prone to heat stroke. If your dog does happening or cat does happen to get heat stroke, you want to go ahead, you would want to wet them with some water. You'll go ahead and get some fans and get the fans on them, blowing so what we're doing is we're cooling them off by drenching them with water. You would also go ahead and get a wet towel and lay that on top of them and you would also get the fan. So we're doing a lot of different things to go ahead and get this excess heat off. Okay. If you guys have any questions about this particular video, leave it in the comments. If you found this video helpful, give us a thumbs up. And if you know somebody who needs this video, subscribe and share. Thanks for watching and have a great day.
