Abrupt effect of high temperature
A sad but true story about the abrupt effect of high temperature.
It is 9 am, I am in the clinic preparing for a busy day, when a man runs into the clinic with an English Bulldog mixed breed in his arms, tears running over his cheeks. “He collapsed, out of nothing,” he stumbled. Our team takes over the dog and run him to the oxygen, start pouring cool water over him and place frozen pees in inguinal area and armpits, whilst one takes the rectal temperature. We have unfortunately seen this too many times, that it has become a routine. The summer heat is so unforgiving! His rectal temperature is a whopping 43 C, this is even for me a seldom seen high temperature. What happened?
The gentleman, a very fit guy himself, had decided that the dog of his friend for whom he was taking care of his dog during his holiday, needed to lose weight, and had taken him for a run. 20 minutes later the dog had collapsed next to him. Not only had the dog not the fitness to run this period of time, but it was also unfortunately already 40 C at 8 am and the humidity was horrendous that day, all the ingredients for a disastrous outcome. Furthermore, the caretaker of the dog was unprepared on what to do in this case and had raced the dog to the vet, without trying to cool it in the meantime.
Unfortunately, we lost this patient within half an hour of arrival.
Read more about heatstroke or hyperthermia.
Written by Dr. Ellen Kruijning, ABVC partner and veterinarian
