The dogs have become use to going potty on our walks, especially Sampson. Delilah will go out in the yard, but with Sampson’s bad legs, he mostly only does his business on our walks, which happen twice per day.
Like the majority of the country, the northeast has been hit with a vicious heat wave.
Up until Sunday, we were managing walks ok. Morning walks are tolerable, although I can’t say I’m a fan of boob sweat or swamp ass at 5:30 in the morning, but at least the temps are in the 70’s.
Sunday was supposed to be the worst day, but we managed a morning walk just fine. In the afternoon it got blazing hot. It was 98° at 5:00 pm.
When it’s super hot and humid, I modify our afternoon walks. By modify I mean, I usually shorten them, or wait until the sun has started its descent so the pavement is cooler, and we walk uphill, where the shade is.
I thought if I drove the dogs up to the woods, we would have some relief from the heat, and Sampson could enjoy a walk in one of his favorite places. It would mean shortening Delilah’s walk, but with her heart issues, I was fine with that. I brought some water with me, and gave them both water every couple of minutes.
By the time I realized this wood walk wasn’t a good idea, it was too late, we were already at the turn around point. My first clue was the way Sampson was lagging behind, but he was sniffing and Delilah was pulling so I missed that signal.
Then he lay down on the path. Shit! We had to turn around and head back home. It was all down hill so I thought he’d be okay. (In retrospect, I should have called Hubby and had him meet us at the top, but that’s in retrospect.) By the time we were approaching the car, Sampson’s back end was giving out, he had that sloping walk that today’s GSD’s have and every time he stepped on his bad leg, his hip sank. I was afraid he was going to collapse.
I helped him into the car, and watched his ‘good’ leg knuckle. I just about threw up at that point. I gave him some more water, and drove home.
I got him out of the car and coaxed him to the back door, and pounded on the door for Hubby to come out and help him. He got him about three feet inside the door, and he lay down again. He was panting really hard. (Sampson, not Hubby. Hubby was smart, Hubby stayed inside.)
Hubby brought the water bowl over to him, and gave him some water, then he moved the fan so it was blowing on him. We had the air conditioning on, but it was so hot, that the air inside the house was still in the upper 70’s to low 80’s.
A cool, refreshing drink.
I wanted to take a quick, cool shower, so I left Sampson in front of the fan.
While I was in the shower, I was thinking about Sampson. We don’t have a bathtub that is low enough for him to climb into, so I contemplated bringing him in the shower with me, but I was afraid of him slipping on the tile and hurting himself. I wished we still had the little wading pool. Lying in the little pool would help him cool down. I thought about the times on our hikes, when he would put his belly in the stream.
Then a light bulb went off, and I thought, “A cool, wet towel on his tummy!”
I hopped out of the shower, grabbed a hand towel and soaked it with cool water.
Sampson was still lying on his tummy, so I rolled him onto his side and draped the towel over his stomach. The fan was positioned to blow on him, but he was still panting.
I finished my shower, and checked on him again. The towel was still cool, and he was still panting.
I texted Jen, “Help, I fucked up.”
She asked if I’d taken his temperature.
I’m embarrassed to say, I don’t even have a thermometer.
She told me to not let the towel absorb his body heat. To keep checking it and refreshing it, so it stayed cool. She also said I could rub his gums with an ice cube, and cool his paw pads with cool, but not super cold water.
By now, about an hour had passed and he wasn’t panting continuously, but in smaller increments. I tried rubbing an ice cube on his gums, but the little shit ate the ice cube. I took the towel and wiped his paws.
I felt like the crisis had past, but I didn’t encourage him to move. I was concerned about feeding him his dinner, but he stood up fine and didn’t seem to be having the same problems with his legs.
While we were eating our dinner, he got up and moved into the living room.
I don’t think it was heat stroke, or heat exhaustion, but I do think for Sampson the heat and exercise was just too much for him. I told Hubby, “From now on, when it’s that hot, walks will be after the sun goes down, and if it’s still too hot, it will just be enough to do their business.
Moral of the story, don’t walk your dog when it’s almost 100°, it’s not worth their life. Or the time you shave off your own, thinking you killed your dog.
For some great tips at keeping your dogs cool during the hot months, check out what Jen had to say on this My Brown Newfies post.
Don’t beat yourself up over your WTF moment. We all have them. The important thing is to learn from them.
I worry about Shadow in the heat, too, with her double coat. In some ways it’s a blessing that she has to be on the leash for another couple of weeks. She hates it and always turns back to the porch when she’s done with her business. Ducky would stay outside all day if we let her; but with the heat and humidity, I restrict yard time to 10 minutes max at a time.
Mom’s cousin had a dog years ago. The roommate took it along for a run and she died from heatstroke. One always has to be careful. Don’t beat yourself up. You do the best you can for your dogs, and sometimes we make mistakes that we don’t know we are making. He is good, and now you know he can’t handle the heat. They always say be careful of the elderly in the heat, and some of us dogs are now elderly.
I am happy Sampson recovered soon with your great efforts. You are a great pet lover. I go through all your blog posts these are worthy and very helpful for pet lovers. Thanks.
Yikes. That would have been scary. Poor you, and poor Sampson.
We can’t always know how our aging dogs will react so be kind to yourself
Hindsight is 20-20. The important thing is Sampson is okay!
We’ve had to do our walks at oh-dark-30 in the morning before the Mile High altitude meets the sun. And I’ve pretty much given up the evening walks-the pavement is too darn hot. Normally we usually walk around 5 miles a day but now barely reach 3 miles. Luckily the dogs don’t seem to mind much…so long as I play with them periodically during the day. So glad Sampson’s fine. We’ve all had moments like that. No need to beat yourself up; that little job invariably belongs to the DADO jerk down the street-remember you’re eliminating a job when you do it. 😁 Extra ear scratches for your sweet boy. Have a safe and happy 4th. Hope the temps cool down soon. I’m already counting down to autumn. 80 days can’t arrive soon enough.
OMGoodness! Horror story. Happy ending, thank God. This heat. Ugh. It’s ridiculous. All that’s missing are the dancing flames and the guy with the pitchfork.
don’t beat yourself!! We all do (and have done) things like that!
our senior dog runs outside to do her business then runs right back in. no walks because the temps. and muggyness lingers throughout the night and early morning.
we have a.c. in the house plus floor fans.
since lily is long hair we shorten the fur around her legs, tummy, and some on her back.
i lay a bath towel in front of the kitchen sink. lily stands there as i spray her with water from the spayer. just enough to wet it but not soaking wet. she then goes and lies down in front of a floor fan.
as for getting her out of the house for awhile we take a trip to granddads one evening a week. there she can play with his two dogs inside his larger house. being older she sleeps often so that helps.
hugs to you and nose smooches to the pups.
It’s so hard to figure out what is best sometimes! They need their walks, but it’s hot…what do you do? We all make the wrong decisions at times. I’m just so relieved for you that it all was OK in the long run. We only do morning walks anyway, our evenings have been so unbearable so I’m glad we don’t even try that.
Sometimes I’d let the dogs play ball when it was hot, because Cricket especially wanted to play no matter what. Then I would panic I had let them play too much. When they are panting, they are cooling down. We humans can sweat profusely and still be OK! Just saying it may not have been as bad as you thought it was too, so don’t beat yourself up. Sending hugs and I think this stupid heat wave might be over tomorrow?? That’s what they’re saying here, hope it’s the same for you. ♥
Glad Sampy is ok. I wish i could send you my winter weather. Right now at 11pm on Friday it is rainy and really windy. I might be weird but i love hot weather not the humidity though.
Glad that things turned out ok! This heat has been awful–we had a scary moment earlier this week, too (that I haven’t gotten around to writing about yet!). We’re looking forward to more normal Ohio weather, but according to the forecast, it doesn’t look like that’s happening in the next week or so.