Leaving your dog in your hot car is the equivalent of putting him in an oven and letting him roast. I’m not kidding. It only takes 30 minutes for the inside of your car to heat up to 119 degrees. It would only take you an hour to bake a 1kg cake at that temperature.
Now, if it were you in the car, you’d start sweating to regulate your body temperature. But Bella can’t sweat because of her thick fur. Dogs rely on their nasal surfaces and the dilation of skin blood vessels to lose heat. None of that is going to work in the oven that Bella is left inside.
So she will resort to panting, which she quickly realizes is not working too. At this point, she has begun panicking. She hopefully looks out the window but no signs of you. Nobody can hear her muffled cry of help. Normal dog temperature is 100.5-102.5 degrees. Bella’s temperature is now at 103.8. It’s only a matter of time before she starts suffering from heatstroke resulting in multi-organ failure.
Her circulatory system, kidneys, liver, and GI tract will all begin shutting down. Now, Bella doesn’t even remember who she is. She doesn’t know where she is either. She is disoriented or depressed. She might start experiencing muscle tremors, seizures, or in the extreme, fall in a comma.
If you find her like this, your next step is to work on lowering her temperature. Do not use ice. That is too abrupt. Instead, use lukewarm water. You can also turn on your AC while you rush her to the nearest vet. If possible, try rubbing alcohol on her foot pads, inner ears, and belly to increase heat loss.
Hopefully, the damage can be reversed, and nobody has to live with the thought that they baked their dog to death. The mortality rate from heatstroke is approximately 50%, and your dog will have to be admitted for at least 24-48 hours. You could have prevented all that. PS: Leaving your car window open to a crack will not prevent your car from overheating.
Feature Image Source: Pixabay