I have an old dog - he needs some help

[Coyote_Bandit]

He tends to overheat easily. We're going to take several short (2 to 3 hours) car trips this summer. We've done that in the past and he has done fine. He likes to ride but with his advancing age I am more concerned about him getting too hot and stressed while traveling.

I'd like to buy one of those dog cooling beds or vests for use while traveling. But I know nothing about them and don't know anybody who has used them.

Can anybody shed some light on this?

Thanks.

[Flaxbee]

1. hm. not sure (I have cats) but maybe your vet knows?

In my dog experience, before I was overtaken by cats, dogs looooove road trips. Glad you're trying to bring him along...

[Coyote_Bandit]

2. This old dog

has a thick coat even though his belly has been shaved and his coat has been trimmed and thinned for summer. He also has a smushed in face which makes it harder for him to cool himself. With age, he has developed heart disease. So I'm concerned about keeping him cool and relatively unstressed. He loves to ride and knows varioius markers along the way.

I have asked the vet and she is concerned about him overheating. She knows of the products (cool bed and canine cooler among others) but won't recommend them because she hasn't had any experience with them.

[marzipanni]

3. Is your car air conditioned? n/t

[Coyote_Bandit]

5. Yes but in the heat of summer

it can still be warm for a thick coated smushed faced elderly dog.

In the heat of summer typical temps are in the upper 90s - often with high humidity levels. Heat indexes often run well above 100.

[marzipanni]

8. In 2002 our malamute-Australian shepherd-heeler,

Billie, who had a medium coat with undercoat, went into cardiac arrest the fist night we were camping at Lake Tahoe :cry: She died in my arms. She was 13 1/4. Our truck isn't air conditioned. She was panting a lot, and we stopped and let her walk around and have drinks of water during the ~2 hour trip. I think she was getting to the point that she would have died anywhere she happened to be. She was starting to have trouble walking home on walks in warm weather.
My son, almost 8 at the time, said she died in a place that was wonderful for a dog... I wish she had at least lived to walk in the woods the next morning! ... and we talked about how dogs and humans have been companions for millennia, and here we were, sitting at the campfire with her when she died.
Rabbits in county fair exhibits lean against frozen water bottles so they don't overheat, maybe a cool bed or vest would work. I'd ask a forum of people who are familiar with the smooshed-nose dogs.

[Coyote_Bandit]

9. .

Thank you for sharing your story.

My boy has a heart murmur and an enlarged heart. Probably has a leaky heart valve. He is not yet coughing or retaining fluid. He tires easily when walking even in cool weather. The vet has instructed not to walk him for more than 15 minutes per day. He is taking an ACE inhibitor and CoQ-10. Two vets advise that it is uncertain how quickly he will deteriorate into congestive heart failure.

Frozen water bottles? That just might be a pretty good option. Probably cheaper too. Thanks for mentioning it.

[Lyric]

4. Seriesly?

A shave at the groomer's and air conditioning. That's what works for my Toby, a Golden Retriever who tolerates life with us in a crowded trailer park.

:thumbsup:

[Coyote_Bandit]

6. This dog has a very thick coat

The groomer says she always takes a dog full of hair off him. When he was groomed a couple of weeks ago the hair that was removed wighed about a pound and a half. He has at least that much more hair remaining on his body - and he is only a 15 pound dog!

His belly is shaved to bare skin. His pantaloones and firkins have been cut off for the summer. The remainder of his coat (with the exception of his tail) has been trimmed to a length of about an inch.

[CreekDog]

7. My cat occasionally eats so fast he barfs it back up in the middle

:eyes:

sometimes when i notice he is vacuuming his food, i'll go over and say, "take a break!" and get him to walk away for a few minutes and he'll go and sit about 5 feet away licking his teeth and mouth of all the debris for a few minutes. :rofl: :eyes: