Overexterion… it can be deadly. Take extra care in the heat

I am working Peter towards our first attempt at French Ring level Brevet.  We work  two times a week with a decoy who specializes in French Ring.  Peter has lots to learn about Defense of Handler, but his obedience is great.  We went for our training session,  it was a very warm day, but we worked in the shade for the most part and I supplied him with water.    I also had two other dogs with me, both working on general obedience and defense.

I worked Peter first for about thirty minutes, not any longer than normal.   He behaved normally, in fact I stopped his lesson before he was ready – he let me know by continuing to bark and stare at the decoy, so I assumed all was well.    I walked him for about 10 minutes, offered him water (he refused) and then I put him in his crate so that I could work the other two dogs.  He was still panting when I put him up.

I worked the other two dogs for about 20 minutes each, watered them, walked them for a bit and put them up too.  I took Peter out of the crate, let him pee then put him in the car to get ready to go home.  Its about a hour drive home in good traffic.  That day it was two hours to get home.

When we finally got home,  I put the dogs out to potty.  One of my dogs is a 4 month old puppy so I followed him out to praise him for going potty in his spot.  I turn around to go back in the house and I see my Peter peeing what looked like pure red blood.  To say the least I was stunned.

I called the vet and said “I”m bringing Peter in, he just urinated blood”.  Twenty minutes later Peter was in the examining room, they drew blood urine etc etc to do tests.  I was certain he had somehow ingested poison as I had never seen a dog pee blood.  The  vet came back to me to say he was coagulating so she was pretty sure poison was not the culprit.  But she was being safe and giving him Vitamin K injections.

More questions… Did he work hard today? I told her about our workout session. Starting with OB, then move to defensive work. Yes it was warm, but we were working primarily in the shade. Peter was not acting sick at all, his normal happy self.  After he worked out I put him in his crate. Yes he was still panting, but I’ve put him up a little warm before.

The vet ran a blood panel and most of the numbers were right on, but his Red Blood count was high. This leads the vet to think that this has to do with Myoglobin.  And the color of his urine was a dead giveaway that his Kidneys were working hard to get the toxins out of his system.

Taken from a Medical website “Myoglobin is a protein in heart and skeletal muscles. When a muscle is exercised, it uses up available oxygen. Myoglobin has oxygen bound to it, thus providing an extra reserve of oxygen so that the muscle can maintain a high level of activity for a longer period of time. When muscle is damaged, the myoglobin is released into the bloodstream. It is filtered out of the bloodstream by the kidneys, and eliminated in urine. In large quantities, myoglobin can damage the kidney and break down into toxic compounds, causing kidney failure.“

Peter spent a night and two days in the hospital with IV fluids to flush his kidneys. The vet says since I brought him in so fast she is certain he has lost no kidney function. But they ran tests the next morning to be certain. Thankfully Peter came out of his ordeal without any lasting damage.  And the dang dog never even acted slightly sick.  But he did lose 4 pounds – he wouldn’t eat in the hospital.

Lesson learned, NEVER EVER put your dog up hot or warm even. From what I have read, this happens to race horses when they are not cooled down properly. When the animal rests while hot, the muscle begins to break down and then the Myoglobin gets into the blood stream and then its the Kidneys job to filter the toxin out.

Now when I work Peter I take lots of water or a misting can with me.  If its very warm (and this year, it seems its always very warm) I wet Peter down before we work and I’m wetting him down as I walk him after working.  I offer water before and after but usually he refuses if he is panting very hard.  But I walk and wet him until he’s done panting.  Then and only then do I put him up.  If there is room and shade, I let him pace on a long line.  And I still wet him down until he’s cool.

Thank goodness for Pets Best Insurance – Yes Peter has medical insurance that costs me $33 dollars a month.  The total bill was $1480 and after deductible my refund was $1070.