We all need to know what happens to dogs in parked cars

There is an established P&CE thread about the toddler left in an SUV. The father is alleged to have searched for information online about what how long it takes an animal to die in a parked car prior to the incident. I am not trying to continue commentary about the toddler incident in this thread. That's properly left to its own place. However, it reminded me of this great (albeit hard to read) piece:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/columnist/pettalk/2009-07-14-dogs-in-hot-cars_N.htm
"Don't think for a minute that dogs can survive in a hot car," USA Today, 2009.

We all need to know this. My gut reaction on going past a dog alone in a car in a grocery parking lot is still to chuckle and think he's a cute little/big guy. I am trying to be more mindful about that. From the article above:

It's 11 a.m., 75 degrees.

In the Safeway parking lot, two hairy dogs are panting and pacing in a car with windows cracked about 5 inches.

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... the temperature doesn't have to be in the 90s for a car-bound animal to be in deep trouble. At much lower temperatures, particularly if the sky is cloudless, the humidity high or the car dark-colored, a vehicle becomes a sauna fast. And cracking windows a few inches accomplishes practically nothing (though many owners of now-dead pets thought it would).

In fact, researchers learned that when it's a sunny 78 degrees, the temperature in a parked car with windows cracked rises at least 32 degrees in 30 minutes. So: 78 degrees to 110 in half an hour.

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As the temperature rises and the dog realizes it's in trouble, it becomes frantic, tries to get out, scratching at windows or digging at the seat or floor. It's an awful moment, the dog's moment of realization. ... Dogs, of course, panic, since they can devise no strategies other than digging desperately. They often bloody themselves in this effort to survive. Some have heart attacks.

The panic doesn't last long. Very quickly the dog goes prostrate, begins vomiting, having diarrhea and lapsing into unconsciousness. Organs are disintegrating.

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"When you do an autopsy on a dog that died this way, the organs are soupy."

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This isn't cute, and it isn't okay. It isn't enough that dogs put in these situations often get lucky, no more than it is okay that unbuckled kids often get lucky enough to get away with it.

Added: The article details one death of a dog whose owner was merely doing a short bank visit. Unfortunately, he fell and hit his head. The owner ended up being okay. The dog wasn't.

I have my own furry friend. He loves car rides. I don't take him anymore unless I have plans for what to do with him every step. If it's winter, no problem. If not, there's either a plan, or he stays home. He doesn't understand why. I do.

Yeah. For Beo, if we can't work in an extra run or ride, he at least gets to sleep in the choice spot: not at the foot of the bed, but next to my butt.

This does not make my own excursions of the romantic persuasion any easier. Come to think of it, that's a part of what makes going out so much more complicated than when I was younger. So it goes.

Ambrosia said:

I'm sorry. But sometimes a person has no choice.... I am worried, but without recourse.

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Yeah, I know. I've done road trips, too--the kind where you got rid of everything that won't fit in your vehicle because you can't afford to ship it. I think we'll eventually develop social structures to support a growing understanding of this kind of problem, but we aren't there yet. Not consistently.

Ambrosia, I want to assure you that I was careful about my wording. I hemmed and hawed over it in my head for awhile. I deliberately chose language like "we all need to know" and "I am trying to be more mindful" because I won't preemptively judge someone who doesn't make the same choices I do, or someone who cannot.

I still want to talk about it. The fact that cracked windows don't help too much is counter-intuitive, and we do need to know the risks.

For myself, I am much more likely (as in, I would not have done it before) to wait and make sure dogs I see in parked cars are okay. I am likely to consider talking to the driver in a friendly way, if the opportunity arises. That's a harder one, though, as I often look, ah, weathered, when I'm out and about, and that might not go over so well. But I'm thinking about it.

I have no plans to automatically call any sort of enforcement. I am damned if I will not make myself more mindful meanwhile.

Monkey said:

I suppose it's a difference in what the dog has been acclimated to. I know people can have heat strokes at 90 degrees, but here, that's nothing. Pretty much every day this month is going to be hotter than that. But isn't it odd how actual, physical damage can happen or not based on acclimatization?

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Yes. Heat acclimatization absolutely plays a known role in the development (or not) of heat stroke in dogs. People, too.

There is an excellent but technical paper (pdf) from Veternary Medicine: Research and Reports at http://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB4QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dovepress.com%2Fgetfile.php%3FfileID%3D14881&ei=tJmtU-mZD6nz8AG3ooHIDg&usg=AFQjCNHFTGco6naS7PQXtq-XsXA7KF7cew&sig2=Ur7gUzWfRhzCq2Hz5JTAKA&bvm=bv.69837884,d.b2U

Abstract: Canine heatstroke is a life-threatening condition resulting from an imbalance between heat dissipation and production, and characterized by a nonpyrogenic elevation in core body temperature above 41°C (105.8°F). Several exogenous and endogenous factors may predispose dogs to the development of heatstroke; on the other hand, adaptive mechanisms also exists which allow organisms to combat the deleterious effects of heat stress, which are represented by the cellular heat-shock response and heat acclimatization. The pathophysiology and consequences of heatstroke share many similarities to those observable in sepsis and are related to the interaction between the direct cytotoxicity of heat, the acute physiological alterations associated with hyperthermia, such as increased metabolic demand, hypoxia, and circulatory failure, and the inflammatory and coagulation responses of the host to the widespread endothelial and tissue injuries, which may culminate in disseminated intravascular coagulation, systemic inflammatory response syndrome, and multiple organ dysfunction.

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So it's a cascade effect, just like in humans. At a given temperature non-acclimatized dog may tip over into the cascade of physiologic effects leading to "soup," whereas an acclimatized dog may not.

Kind of like people with heart attacks. A healthy (acclimatized to exercise) person can exercise with a high heart rate. Someone not acclimatized (say, blocked arteries) may exercise by shovelling snow on the weekend, raise their heart rate, block off an artery, start killing off a wall of the heart, trigger an arrythemia or heart failure, build up fluid in the lungs, decrease blood flow to the brain, etc.

Why didn't the other person with the high heart rate get lung or brain damage? The initial trigger for the cascade of effects wasn't there.