You should never throw cold water on an overheated dog.
Experts advise either immersing or covering the dog in cool water while creating an air flow, and that “any water is better than no water” in emergency situations. Colder water may be more effective if a dog has become unconscious. The water should be applied “gently” to prevent shock or panic.
You should never put wet towels on a dog’s back.
This is correct. Experts do not advise putting wet towels over a dog’s back because it can trap heat. They recommend placing a wet towel under a dog and warn that the towel must be kept wet. Other cooling methods are preferable.
Viral Facebook posts sharing advice on how to treat an “overheated dog” are not entirely correct.
The posts, which both have identical text, have collectively been shared thousands of times, but have also been criticised by vets on Facebook.
Posts like these can spread very quickly online and may mean people don’t follow the best available advice in emergency situations, potentially leading to further harm. We have written about similar posts before, including false claims that police advise smashing car windows to rescue dogs in hot weather and that giving ice cubes to dogs will cause them to overheat.
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The Facebook posts claim that you should “never make the mistake of throwing cold water on an overheated dog”.
They add: “Due to the cold, the veins contract and due to the high temperature (above 42 degrees), the proteins in the blood clot, which makes the blood thick and viscous.
“Due to the combination of the two, the heart can no longer get the blood and the organs fail one by one due to lack of oxygen. If you try to help an overheated dog in this way, he may die.”
The posts go on to advise that you should give a dog lukewarm water to drink, cool the soles of the feet, chest and lower abdomen with a damp towel and move the dog into the shade also on a damp towel. One of the posts shows a photo of a dog lying on its side with damp towels over its paws.
Experts told Full Fact that this advice is not accurate. They said tap water is best for cooling conscious dogs and that any water is considered better than none. If a dog is unconscious, colder water may be more effective.
Dr Dan O’Neill, associate professor in companion animal epidemiology at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), whose work focuses on heat-related illness in dogs, told us: “Any water cooler than the dog’s current body temperature is better than no water at all as a cooling aid.
“In dogs cold water immersion using ‘tap water’, specifically water at 15-16˚C, was reported to cool conscious dogs with heat-related illness the fastest, whilst water at 1-11˚C cooled unconscious dogs the fastest.”
Dr O’Neill added that it was crucial to ensure "the dog’s airway is protected to avoid the risk of aspiration (inhaling water and drowning), especially if the dog is unconscious or has breathing difficulties.”
The RSPCA also recommends opting for cool water over cold water in order to avoid shock but adds: “In a true emergency, any water is better than nothing.”
The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) says to “gently pour water over their whole body, start slowly so they don’t panic, but aim to soak their whole body as calmly and quickly as possible. Alternatively, if they are used to water and won’t panic, you can submerge their whole body (except for their head) into water.”
The post says that you should never put wet towels on a dog’s back. This is correct and in line with expert advice. The RSPCA warns “wet towels placed over the dog can worsen the condition, trapping heat”, but notes placing a wet towel under the dog can be effective in mild cases.
Dr O’Neill told us: “It is safer to let the dog lie on the towel, or ensure the dog can remove the towel should they prefer”. He said wet towels are “better than nothing” if other cooling methods aren’t accessible, for example during a car journey
Moreover, the post specifies that you should “cool the soles of the feet and chest/lower abdomen with a damp towel”. According to Dr O’Neill, the wet towel should be applied directly to the skin, rather than over thick fur. For most dogs, the surface of the chest and abdomen has less fur and so would be the most effective area to apply the wet towel, as advised in the post.
However, in all cases, Dr O’Neill warned that the dog should not be left unsupervised because the towels need to be kept wet or removed when they dry out, and that water immersion or cooling using water and an air current are still the most effective methods.
The RSPCA advises people to familiarise themselves with the symptoms of heatstroke in dogs to look out for, such as excessive drooling, heavy panting and lethargy, among others. The majority of heat-related illness in dogs is triggered by exercise.
Advice on the organisation’s website recommends that the dog’s body temperature is cooled “gradually” through moving into a cool, shaded area, allowing them to drink small amounts of cool water and immediately pouring cool water over them until their breathing settles, but not so much that they start shivering. It also says the dog should be taken to a vet as a matter of urgency.
You can read more detailed information about heatstroke in dogs here.
Image courtesy of Paul Korecky
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as partly false because experts advise that any water is better than no water in emergency situations.
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