Animals – Summer pet problems

With the arrival of beach and barbecue weather, here are a few of the health problems to be on the lookout for with your dogs and sometimes cats.

Hot dogs

Every year, some pets will die from heat stress. Moving to cool places and panting cool air over a wet tongue are animals two main heat loss mechanisms. But cars and unventilated, tin sheds, where temperatures can easily get over 40C, can prevent these things from happening. Rescuing severely affected animals should involve cooling them down slowly and getting them rehydrated with an i/v drip. On rare occasions, these animals appear to have recovered okay only to get disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) and die a few days later. Have you ever wondered why blood doesn’t clot when it is circulating around normally in blood vessels? You could say it is because the linings of those blood vessels are made to a very high, specific standard and when that is damaged you get “intravascular coagulation”. If the damage is all over the place (“disseminated”), as can be the case after heat stress, then you get a very dangerous situation. You might notice unusual areas of bruising and really pale mucous membranes developing.

Thirsty dogs

Some dogs at the beach will drink salt water. You might notice them looking pretty unhappy, possibly vomit a bit and then there will be diarrhoea – in the car on the way home if you are unlucky. So take fresh water for them to drink on hot days.

Sore dogs

Vets sometimes have to deal with grass seeds penetrating a dog’s skin, mainly in the paws usually at the level where the webbing starts. The level of soreness can vary quite a bit. You will probably notice a localised, red puffy swelling between the toes. Really hairy feet are probably more at risk than others. “Barley grass” seeds would have to be the worst offenders.

Poisoned dogs

Most of us know dogs are at risk of poisoning from eating chocolate. You should not see symptoms if the dog has eaten less than about 3g of dark chocolate per kilogram of dog weight or 10g of milk chocolate per kilogram of dog weight. Death has been reported with dogs eating as little as 22g of dark chocolate/kg or 70g milk chocolate/kg, but normally it takes more than twice that. There are many symptoms of toxicity, but be on the lookout for hyperactivity, tremors and a thumping heart. Coffee can produce symptoms similar to chocolate. One cup of espresso might be strong enough to show mild symptoms in a 5kg dog. And don’t let dogs eat macadamia nuts. Toxicity starts at 2g/kg. Also note that grapes (over 21g/kg) and raisins or sultanas (over 3g/kg) are toxic for dogs. Onions, garlic and chives should be avoided by dogs as they can cause anaemia. Cats are carnivores where dogs are technically omnivores. But some cats will eat non meaty things. I’ve heard it said cats should not be offered any vegetables used in Chinese cooking.