First aid for hyperthermia in an animal

Hyperthermia, that is general overheating of the organism, develops in animals on such days that have just started: when there’s plenty of sun rays and high temperatures. In the same way as people, cats and dogs (and naturally also other animals) should take in more liquids on such days and seek out shade during the time of highest sun activity. You can learn more about how to prevent hyperthermia in a cat here and about the same for dogs in this article. Today, we will focus on how to recognise a heatstroke or heat exhaustion in an animal and how to administer first aid in such case.

Heatstroke in animals lies in damage to tissues through a long-term stay in direct sun. Heat exhaustion means general overheating of an animal. It can therefore occur even if the animal is not directly in the sun. A typical example is leaving a dog in a closed car during the summer months. However, it can also be caused by an unventilated room with a higher temperature. Don’t forget that animals are at a greater risk of hyperthermia, since their whole body is covered with hair and they don’t have the option to cool down with sweat. On that account, when we are feeling uncomfortable animals may already be in danger.

The danger of hyperthermia in animals lies mainly in heat stress. That is dehydration of the organism and the following swelling of the internal organs (especially of the brain and the lungs). Dehydration can also cause blood thickening and rupturing of red blood cells.

The symptoms don’t have to appear immediately

Symptoms of overheating may appear even several hours after the animal was subjected to heat stress. Hyperthermia usually progresses in this way:

• Faster breathing at the beginning, as the animal tries to cool down. It can calm down with time, since the thermoregulation centres disable themselves in the brain.
• That is followed by weariness, weakness or even apathy.
• Vomiting and loss of appetite appear.
• The animal may be very thirsty, but it doesn’t have to be if it is too exhausted.
• If the mentioned swelling of the brain appears, the animal lies down and it can also have spasms in the legs.
• In advanced stages of overheating, the animal can fall into a coma and frequently, it may die as well.

First aid

First aid for hyperthermia in an animal is logically cooling. However, the method is very important. For instance, if you would throw an overheated dog into ice-cold water, you would only cause a shock reaction of the organism and the situation would only get worse.

It is recommended to dip the head and the limbs into tepid water, or to wrap the animal into a wet towel. Cooling should only last for about 10 to 15 minutes, otherwise, undercooling of the organism might occur.

You can also just cool down the paws by “putting on” cups with ice or ice cream. However, such shock cooling method should not last more than 5 to 10 minutes. Not only undercooling could occur, but mortification of parts of the limbs as well.

Veterinary help is necessary!

If you suspect that hyperthermia occurred in your dog, cat or rabbit, for instance, always and without any delay contact your veterinary and consult the animal’s condition with them.

If the animal is already weary, don’t wait for anything and seek out help from the closest veterinary clinic. Since here it’s really a matter of minutes. The animal must be immediately hydrated, preferably with intravenous infusion and medicine for brain edema must be administered immediately.

Have you ever dealt with hyperthermia in your pet? I’ve luckily succeeded in preventing it. Those of us, who have ever suffered from a heatstroke or heat exhaustion in life, know, how unpleasant and dangerous thing it is, and thanks to this, they might take greater care both of themselves and their close ones.