After having to put my 14.5 yr old yellow lab to sleep in August, I lost my 2 year old chocolate lab to heat stroke on 11/7/03. Sam was a 105 lb machine that was lean and affable. To my wife and I, his loss was and still is especially devastating since it was so unexpected. We took for granted that he would be with us for many more years.
Sam and I ran together 3x per week, approx 3-5 miles. He "lived" for the running. As soon as I put on my running shoes he would leap straight up into the air repeatedly and rush to the garage door. We had run together since he was about 4-5 months old.
On 11/4 we did our usual morning run. The temperature was relatively cool (mid 70's) for Houston, and we had been running in the 80's and 90's all summer long. About 3/4 of the way through, Sam collapsed. We had stopped at the halfway mark where I had given him about 20 oz of water from a bottle. I always would bring one bottle of which I never drank any and he usually only took 1/3.
He was unable to move at all, and I carried him down a 100 ft ravine into a creek to allow him to cool off. After about 15 minutes his ear temp
was much lower. I hauled him back up the ravine and carried him about a 1/4 mile to my truck. Took him home and put him into the cool shower, and gave him some juice to drink.
After about a two hour nap he started walking around to get food and water. He was a little wobbly, but visibly much better. However, he started to be unable to hold down the fluids and began vomiting after drinking. We decided then (too late) to take him to the vet.
He walked on his own into the vet emergency clinic, and the vet took some blood work. We noticed then that he began developing some fresh bruises on his chest. I figured than was from me carrying him over my shoulder. The bruises turned into huge purple welts in just minutes.
It turned out that his kidneys, intestines, liver and spleen all shut-down from ischemia. He developed an uncontrollable bleeding condition called disseminated intravascular coagulopathy (DIC). After a couple of transfusions over the next 2-3 days this stabilized.
His blood work showed a very grim story - his kidneys and liver were badly damaged. His body had used up over 90% of the normal blood proteins for clotting and for the immune system. His heart was beating irregularyly, yet he would get up on his own to use the bathroom.
He started to improve, the kidneys began working and the liver function improved. His bleeding problem had all but resolved by the fourth day. He began to try to eat. Then, the fifth day though he slipped into a coma-like state.
After a CAT scan was done, we discovered that he had bled inside his skull, putting pressure on the brain-stem. I arranged for a Neurosurgeon to decompress his brain. I started him on high dose steroids to try to shrink the swelling in his brain as we headed to another vet hospital with the operating facility. He stopped breathing on the way.
I had been too crushed by this to share with others. Today, I want to share this with other dog owners to stress the danger of heat stroke. I have been a trauma surgeon for close to 10 years and was completely ignorant of this. Hopefully, something good might come from his untimely death.
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