13/06/2025
🌡️ Heat-stroke season is here - and your dog can’t take its coat off
As the UKHSA and Met Office raise a yellow heat-health alert for 12-15 June 2025, forecasters are whispering about 30 °C highs. For your dog, that’s like stepping into a sauna with no exit.
How big is the problem?
🐾 VetCompass tracked 905,543 UK dogs and found heat-related illness (HRI) in 0.04 % of dogs each year with a 14 % fatality rate. Scaled to today’s 10.6 million dogs, that’s roughly 4,200 dogs sick and 600 deaths every summer.
🐾 A follow-up study showed 74 % of cases start with exercise, while only 5 % come from dogs left in hot cars - that “quick lunchtime walk” is actually more dangerous than the parked vehicle everyone warns about.
Risk isn’t equal - breeds that struggle most:
🔥 Chow Chow - 17 × risk
🔥 Bulldog - 14 ×
🔥 French Bulldog - 6 ×
🔥 Dogue de Bordeaux - 5 ×
🔥 Greyhound - 4 ×
🔥 Cavalier King Charles Spaniel - 3 ×
🔥 Pug - 3 ×
🔥 English Springer Spaniel - 3 ×
🔥 Golden Retriever - 3 ×
Flat faces shorten airways, making panting inefficient, while heavier bodies trap heat. Age matters too: youngsters sprint until they drop; seniors can overheat just lying in the sun.
Spot the red flags - act fast:
⚠️ Rapid, relentless panting
⚠️ Dark-red or pale gums
⚠️ Disorientation or collapse
⚠️ Vomiting or diarrhoea
⚠️ Re**al temperature above 40 °C (if you can check safely)
Cool first, drive second: move to shade, drench with tap water, point a fan at the soaked coat, ring your vet while you travel. Cooling before you leave can double survival chances.
Five street-smart ways to keep your mate alive:
✅ Dawn or dusk walks only: cooler pavements, lower UV, happier dog.
✅ Cancel the fetch-fest: missing one session beats an IV drip.
✅ Carry water and a fold-up bowl: stop to sip every 10 minutes when it’s over 20 °C.
✅ Stick to grass: tarmac can hit 50 °C; if your hand can’t stay on it for 5 seconds, it’s too hot.
✅ Never trust shade in a car: windows ajar won’t stop cabins hitting 47 °C within an hour.
Bottom line: Heat-stroke is swift, savage and almost always preventable. Pick cool walks, watch the thermometer - and if in doubt, skip the outing. Your dog would rather miss a walk than miss you for ever.
