Local vet: "Rushing your pet with heatstroke to the vet is not the correct thing to do"
Following the hottest day ever recorded in May, a local vet offers her advice on what to do if your pet suffers from heat stroke
As we head into another warm weekend, a local vet says taking pets with heatstroke straight to the vet isn’t always the best move
Last Tuesday (May 26) saw the hottest day in May recorded as temperatures hit 35°C in Kew Gardens
The RSPCA says they saw more than 4,200 incidents of people searching for advice relating to heatstroke, a staggering 4,841% increase from the normal daily average of 85 visits.
Heatstroke occurs when a dog gets too hot and can’t lower its temperature by panting and it can quickly become fatal meaning prevention is essential.
Vanessa Waite is head vet at The Vet Station in Molesey, she told us one of the myths she heard that really annoyed her
"The one that irritates me is not to get the pet wet when they have heatstroke. So something happened a few years ago where we were hearing advice about not wetting your pet because it puts them into shock.
Actually the number one thing that you can do for your pet in heatstroke is cool down their body temperature.
There is something in it where if it's ice freezing cold water, they could go into shock or actually it could make the heatstroke worse because they vasoconstrict.
But water, cool water, anything that's cooler than their body temperature and immersing the pet in that water and getting them wet is the fastest way to drop their body temperature."
Vanessa also added another common mistake was immediately rushing to the vet
Rushing your pet with heatstroke to the vet as the first thing is actually not the correct thing to do. And it's not often that we say this as vets.
The first thing that we want you to do is cool your pet's body temperature down because that is the number one thing that will save your pet's life. And that is what we would do anyway if they arrived at veterinary clinic with heatstroke"
Vanessa provided clarification as to what they key signs of heatstroke in a pet were
"Increase in respiration rate. So that is their breathing rate. That is the first thing that will start to go up. Now, we're not going to see much sweating because animals are not very good at sweating, but they lose a lot of their heat through panting.
They'll also get very red gums and sometimes you can see that in the eyes as well and that's their body vasodilating. So they're pushing the blood out to the surface of their body because they want to lose their body heat.
That's the first stages. If you see those stages and you act quickly, you will save your pet's life.
End stages are more severe. So you've got lethargy. They may lay down on the floor and refuse to get up, they may actually be collapsed and if you are incredibly unlucky, they can start to seizure."