Your Pets’ Health This Summer, Ⅰ
This spring started out warm and it has stayed that way all the way through mid-summer. This is becoming common place for the great northwest in which our business is located.
If you’re experiencing an especially warm summer this year as well, then your pet could be at risk. With this in mind, it must be very important to understand that our animals, most especially our dog companions can become, very easily, overheated causing minor to severe medical complications.
They can have a most challenging time with even the slightest elevation of temperature while trying to regulate and cool their internal organ systems. This makes it extremely hard for them to cool down even in mildly warm conditions. For instance, even in the low 70’s. Remember that even a few minutes in the car, even with the windows down, can cause extreme stress to our four legged friends. We’ve recently heard about a dog that died after just being walked for a few blocks to the park. He went into a heat stroke event and never recovered. It was in the low 70’s!
A canines ability to cool down by sweating is limited to their paws and breath. They can also clear excess, internal heat by initially moving it through their circulatory system, and then secondarily externally through their urine and feces [this same idea goes for humans]. Urine can appear as dark-yellow, concentrated and possibly scant amount, but not always. Feces can appear as being hot, extremely smelly, loose, mucous-showing and fast or explosive and in extreme conditions black, tarry and sticky.
This description of excess, internal heat removal by urine and feces can be used [as a general means and at any time of the year] to recognize your dog may, most likely, require immediate internal cooling, balancing and rebuilding with the proper Chinese Herbal Health Support Powders
Signs of Heat Stroke with dogs:
- Excess, non-stopping of panting
- Dehydration
- Excessive drooling
- Increased body temperature – above 103° F (39° C)
- Reddened gums and moist tissues of the body
- Production of only small amounts of urine or no urine
- Sudden (acute) kidney failure
- Rapid heart rate
- Shock
- Sudden breathing distress
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Passage of blood in the bowel movement or stool
- Black, tarry stools
- Disease characterized by the breakdown of red-muscle tissue
- Changes in mental status
- Seizures
- Muscle tremors
- Wobbly, uncoordinated or drunken movements
- Unconsciousness
We are always working on keeping dogs cooled down, especially for the purpose of preventing any overheating episodes. This is done internally with Yin and Blood Tonics. Dogs can run very hot in temperature, especially due to the Chinese Medicine Pattern of Kidney Yin Deficiency affecting their Kidney and Heart Organ Systems as you can see with the list above. Overheating of these organ systems can have immediate and long-term negative effects on your pets, as well as making them especially sensitive to the warmer seasons and more susceptible to becoming overheated in the future.
List of Related Kidney & Urinary Bladder Organ System Disharmonies:
- Constipation
- Incontinence
- Chronic fever
- Weak hips
- Hot joints
- Low immune
- Low sex drive
- Hot & dry nose, feet
- Slow healing wounds
- Weak hair, bones, eyes
- Lower back pain, weakness
- Joint pain especially knees, hips and ankles
- Dry mouth, skin
- Increased thirst
- Water retention especially lower body and mid-section
- Dream disturbed sleep, nightmares, vivid
- Low appetite, slow digestion
- Fright, fear, agitation and restlessness
- Low motivation
- Skin problems, rash/red/abscess types
- Kidney or urinary bladder infections
- Blood problems
Quite simply, the Kindey Yin is the foundation of all Yin in the body, animal or human. The Yin of your body can be likened to your car’s coolant system–it is responsible for keeping your body cool, as well as hydrated.
Problems such as chronic inflammation, dryness, excess thirst, constipation, insomnia, weak teeth, bleeding gums, chronic infections, slow healing wounds, kidney stones, weak bones, lack of focus, lack of endurance…can often be attributed to the body’s Yin as being deficient. Taking a Kidney Yin Tonic is much like adding coolant to your coolant systems reserve tank! We personally have been giving our dog, Lana, Kidney Yin Formulas for the past 17 years allowing her to have great and lasting health benefits. With the excess heat of the summer season, a Chinese Herbal Formula program can prove to be very useful to your pets.
A great prophylactic or a recovery Chinese Herbal Formula treatment program would be an equal mixture of Doggy De-Wormer, Detox & Infection Powder and Kidney & Bladder Health Support Dog Powder two to three times per day to internally cool the organ systems.
For emergencies, you should always contact your vet immediately. If your dog is not in an emergency state, but is generally warm to hot year round, please seriously consider this formula program.
It is also very important for you to have these formulations on-hand during the hot seasons so that at they can be administered at the earliest onset of overheating or with heat stroke after you have stabilized the situation! Remember that heat stroke, even in the mildest form is very serious, requiring immediate intervention.
Please share with us your experiences with battling the extreme summer heat and keeping your pets healthy in the comments below! We are happy to answer any questions, too. We’d love to hear from you and please don’t overheat this summer. We hope that you and your loved ones stay cool!
