Heat stroke is a preventable cause of dog mortality that continues to claim lives due to preventable situations. Understanding the risks and acting to prevent them protects dog welfare.
Heat stroke causes acute, severe suffering including panting, collapse, seizures, and organ failure, and is frequently fatal without immediate intervention. Despite widespread awareness campaigns, dogs continue to die in hot cars and from exercise in hot weather each year. Prevention requires understanding that dogs cannot cool themselves as effectively as humans and that brief periods in hot conditions can be lethal. Flat-faced breeds are at extreme risk at temperatures that would barely affect other dogs. Early recognition of heat exhaustion allows rapid cooling that prevents progression to life-threatening heat stroke. The suffering of heat stroke is entirely preventable.