Yesterday we did quite a lot of this:
Pretty soon, the dogs were looking like this:
Then Piper started looking kinda like this:
It didn't seem that hot outside to me, in light of the super hot days we had last week , but then again I was not the one running around and devil dancing like a crazy dog. The next thing I knew, Piper had stopped spinning and started staggering. She began to weave and sway, like a drunk person, and then she pitched face first into the grass and was down for the count.
Piper has always had issues with the heat. When she was just wee, only weeks after I adopted her, I had to take her to Regionals with me in really hot, hot weather and she got a mild case of heat stroke. I have kept a watchful eye on her since, but though she tires quickly, she's never really had any more problems, even when it's real hot outside.
But I had never seen her do this before. I FREAKED OUT! I scooped up my teeny 26lb devil and sprinted across the field to my car, where I always keep a gallon jug of cold fresh water. No olympic medalist has anything on me when my dog's in danger, tell you wut. I tossed her into the shade of the POS Pontiac and poured most of the contents of the jug on her belly, where the blood vessels are closest to the skin's surface, while she just lay there in a sort of dazed stupor.
Exercise Induced Collapse, they call it. Some dogs are more sensitive than others, I guess, and some dogs, when they experience it, are more prone to experience it again in the future. Dogs can suffer seizures and even death if they don't get cooled down fast enough. Fortunately for Piper, I had that water and within 30 seconds she was not only up, she was trying to go get her ball lest doG forbid, someone steal it out of the field where she left it when she collapsed!
That was sure scary for me. I thought I was going to lose my wee dolly. Can't have that!
So today, we played it safe and went swimming at Trout Lake.
Piper appreciated my concern for her well being, I'm sure.
But wondered why I didn't do something about the diabolical Woo.
Not that she let a little thing like nearly dying yesterday stop her from having fun today!
Piper almost died? That makes me sad :(
Wait! Did whatever it was rub out the Woo??
*pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease*
I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that. Or anything else for that matter. Like my recall, or my name etc.
Hey. Hey. See this? This here?
You should throw it for me.
Like, right now.
Pretty please? I'd be ever so grateful.
Sweet hockey ball of mercy!
Annnnnnd then there's Woo.
THROW THE FUTHERMUCKIN' WOOTIE TOY RIGHT NOW! I AIN'T ASKIN', I'M TELLIN'!
Or. You. Die.
Sweet! Thx! xoxo
I got the Woooootie Toy, I got the Woooootie Toy!
(*please notice that Wootie is not FAT. He just LOOKS fat. He's actually very slender. So there)
I bet you're thinking about giving me that hockey ball aren't you sugar?
Let me solve that dilemma for you....
INCOMING!
Food Lady? Hello? Food Lady? Say something if you're conscious, Food Lady!
After I regained consciousness, it was time to bid farewell to the lake.
Remember folks - BRING WATER. Offer it liberally. Rest in shade frequently. And when in doubt, make your dog take a break.
Happy Fetching!
Pretty soon, the dogs were looking like this:
Then Piper started looking kinda like this:
It didn't seem that hot outside to me, in light of the super hot days we had last week , but then again I was not the one running around and devil dancing like a crazy dog. The next thing I knew, Piper had stopped spinning and started staggering. She began to weave and sway, like a drunk person, and then she pitched face first into the grass and was down for the count.
Piper has always had issues with the heat. When she was just wee, only weeks after I adopted her, I had to take her to Regionals with me in really hot, hot weather and she got a mild case of heat stroke. I have kept a watchful eye on her since, but though she tires quickly, she's never really had any more problems, even when it's real hot outside.
But I had never seen her do this before. I FREAKED OUT! I scooped up my teeny 26lb devil and sprinted across the field to my car, where I always keep a gallon jug of cold fresh water. No olympic medalist has anything on me when my dog's in danger, tell you wut. I tossed her into the shade of the POS Pontiac and poured most of the contents of the jug on her belly, where the blood vessels are closest to the skin's surface, while she just lay there in a sort of dazed stupor.
Exercise Induced Collapse, they call it. Some dogs are more sensitive than others, I guess, and some dogs, when they experience it, are more prone to experience it again in the future. Dogs can suffer seizures and even death if they don't get cooled down fast enough. Fortunately for Piper, I had that water and within 30 seconds she was not only up, she was trying to go get her ball lest doG forbid, someone steal it out of the field where she left it when she collapsed!
That was sure scary for me. I thought I was going to lose my wee dolly. Can't have that!
So today, we played it safe and went swimming at Trout Lake.
Piper appreciated my concern for her well being, I'm sure.
But wondered why I didn't do something about the diabolical Woo.
Not that she let a little thing like nearly dying yesterday stop her from having fun today!
Piper almost died? That makes me sad :(
Wait! Did whatever it was rub out the Woo??
*pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease*
I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that. Or anything else for that matter. Like my recall, or my name etc.
Hey. Hey. See this? This here?
You should throw it for me.
Like, right now.
Pretty please? I'd be ever so grateful.
Sweet hockey ball of mercy!
Annnnnnd then there's Woo.
THROW THE FUTHERMUCKIN' WOOTIE TOY RIGHT NOW! I AIN'T ASKIN', I'M TELLIN'!
Or. You. Die.
Sweet! Thx! xoxo
I got the Woooootie Toy, I got the Woooootie Toy!
(*please notice that Wootie is not FAT. He just LOOKS fat. He's actually very slender. So there)
I bet you're thinking about giving me that hockey ball aren't you sugar?
Let me solve that dilemma for you....
INCOMING!
Food Lady? Hello? Food Lady? Say something if you're conscious, Food Lady!
After I regained consciousness, it was time to bid farewell to the lake.
Remember folks - BRING WATER. Offer it liberally. Rest in shade frequently. And when in doubt, make your dog take a break.
Happy Fetching!
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21 comments:
River has the same issue as Piper. Fortunately it has only happened a few times at home and I always have the doggie/kiddie pool filled with water in the summer so I just scoop her up and lay her in it until she cools down. Her first time was as a young pup too. Glad Piper sprang back quickly.
We have the same issues with our older BC, Brogan. He's had the collapsing in the heat problem since he was young and our vets at the time didn't really know what to do about it other than keep him in when it was hot (hard to do in Eastern NC). When he starts to stagger, we usually bring him in the house and try to get him to lie down near an air conditioning vent and sometimes we'll give him an ice cube or two to chew on. He thinks that's a great treat and it usually seems to cool him down fairly quickly.
Ummmm Food Lady? 'Xactly how many lenses have you gone through on that fancy camera? :D
Soooooo glad Mz. Piper is back to her Mad Teeth(tm) self! My old aussie would do that chasing soccer balls, scary stuff.
Gosh what a scary experience. Thankyou for letting us know about it so we can all be prepared in the future. I tend to always walk really early if it is going to be hot and plan my walks around water access.
Great pictures. So funny. Your captions are brilliant also.
Glad all is well
Whew! Glad Piper's okay. Any luck with the job search?
As always great photos and thanks for the warning.
Phew! Glad Piper is okay! Quick thinking. I'll keep the belly trick in mind.
I try to take my boys for their big walk right after the girls leave for school, before it gets too hot. And I have to carry around a backpack with a couple of big water bottles (& one for me). It contains all my other doggie outing stuff including sunscreen for my boy with the pink nose. Kiddie pools and ice cubes are great! My boys are usually pretty good at taking a break and finding a spot in the shade, but I always worry when it's hot and they get their zoomies on.
BTW, thanks for the great pictures and commentary, always makes my day.
Hilarious pictures! Your dogs are so crazy! Thanks for the tip about water on the tummy. My boy got hot out on a hike and drinking didn't seem to cool him off much, I could tell he was uncomfortable. At home he has a pool to jump into. Next time I'll splash some water on his tummy.
Piper, girly, you take it easy there! You are my favorite woof and without you teeth wouldn't be mad enough!
great post. Always brightens my mood! (except for the piper almost dying part)
Glad Piper's ok, having an all black dog it's something i'm a little paranoid about!
Can i put in a request for some more photos of MC Hammy and the Donut soon? And more Woo, lots more Mr Woo!
Apparently this is more common in BCs. I am SO glad Piper is OK. Heart in mouth!
I LOVED several of the pics in this entry. "Did whatever it was rub out the Woo?? OMG, a riot, what an expression! "Or. You. Die." -- hysterical. What a face. "I bet you're thinking about giving me that hockey ball aren't you sugar?" Charming!
A friend almost lost her Vizsla to heatstroke -- intensive care for nine days saved her life. It's nothing to mess around with.
How scary! Glad she and you are ok! One of our dogs tends to over heat as well, and we watch him closely.
Barbara
I'm grateful that my girl is finally starting to love the water! She gets over heated so easy i worry about her during our long hikes or frisbee time. I can always tell when shes getting too hot because the rim of her eyes get pink. I'm tempted to get one of those ice vests for her, but i think she might kill me in my sleep LOL
LUV the Piper pics (natch!) but was horrified by the "almost dying" part.
I know waaaayyyyy too many BC's who suffer from some form of "over-heating issues" - whether it be exercise-induced hyperthermia or malignant hyperthermia. What I HATE are those who continue to breed dogs with these issues. I know of one person in particular who has to take her dogs temperature before she goes in the agility ring to make sure she's not over-heating. And she's bred her twice. Not just once - TWICE - because she doesn't think it's much of a problem.
Grrrr......
Gee.. now that I've read these comments, I'm getting some kind of paranoia. Is it really, according to insanedogowner, a genetic problem?
You see, me and my dogs live in Singapore. We are talking about 32 deg C temp ON AVERAGE ALL YEAR ROUND. Well, we try to do stuff really early/late with the dogs so as not be in direct heat (coz I can't stand it either!). But I also know lots of people who bring their dogs to the dog park like at 3pm in the HOT AFTERNOON SUN and it's common for agiity classes to start at 4pm here. (Yes, I don't understand that part either)
I've never seen any dog collapse out of heatstroke here. I don't know if they climatise to the weather here or whatever. But knowing that it's a potential danger now has up my alert level a few notches.
Thanks for the post FL and "warning"! Somewhere down the road, the water on belly thingy is sure to help someone out there. I'm sure. If not my dogs (And I hope NEVER my dogs. :))
Glad Piper is okay thanks to your quick thinking. The Giz has a tendency toward exercise induced hyperthermia. At first it was only on hot days, then he started getting it IN THE DARK, WHEN IT'S RAINING AND HE'S SOAKING WET and IT'S 50 DEGREES F!
So people think it's weird, and maybe cruel when we take him to the river in the middle of winter for swimming. I just smile at them. Thank doG the rivers run cold here all summer.
Love the commentary today. Thanks for the laugh!
How scary!
In the summer I only take my bulldog to play outside if its early and cool, or to the lake where he can stay cooler. And the first summer I had him I had so many people tell me about heat-stroke-dead bullies. :(
Even my dobe tends to wilt in the heat, unless there's swimming involved.
For Tristan - I'm A Heavenly King (and what exactly does that name mean anyway? I've been wondering!)
Exercised induced-hyperthermia and/or malignant hyperthermia (also known as Canine Stress Syndrome) is a genetic mutation in the gene encoding the skeletal muscle clacium release channel. A good article is:
http://journals.lww.com/anesthesiology/pages/articleviewer.aspx?year=2001&issue=09000&article=00026&type=fulltext
Now - one time I was working Cinder out on the hill on a really hot day and she over-heated (because the idiot wouldn't leave her sheep long enough to go to water) not because of a genetic defect, but just because she was too hot. The malignant hyperthermia/CSS usually happens in quick bursts of energy ie an agility run or a couple tosses of a frisbee and all of a sudden the dog is staggering around. When I got a little freaky about what happened to Cinder (because her brother had malignant hyperthermia and several cousins as well) I was reassured that it would have shown up long ago....(she was like 7 years old at the time.)
The dog I mentioned earlier who has CSS and was bred twice has produced one or two pups in each litter (those are the ones I know of) that also overheat too easily. But apparently, it's no big deal to this person as her dog is "fast" and so are her kids.
Double Grrrr,,,,,
Glad Piper's okay. Been there, done that. It's a scarey feeling.
Yeah, in this hot weather it must be awesome to have dog-friendly beaches around. My dogs only get to swim when we visit my parents, so we do that every couple weeks. Our usual play place does indeed border a lake, but the lake is known for gators and we've seen plenty of cottonmouth snakes too. :( The dogs look so disappointed whenever we play in sight of the water and they aren't allowed in. Darn Florida.
Insanedogowner, thank you for the info on CSS! Very interesting stuff.
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