The extremely high heat we are having prompted one of our WWLTV reporters to tell a personal story about what happened to his pet because of the hot asphalt.
That prompted us to put children’s stick-on thermometers on the pavement. It quickly shot up to the highest reading of 105 degrees, and that heat can cause a problem even long-time dog owners have never seen before.
Six-month-old Pit Bull mix Bishop is acting like the adolescent that he is today, but a few days ago jogging with his owner, Eyewitness News reporter Wynton Yates, something happened that he has never seen before as a dog owner.
“And I saw the pads on his paws were completely hanging off. They were just hanging by a little bit of skin,” said Yates.
Yates and Bishop were jogging on the asphalt around 10 a.m. when he noticed bloody paw prints.
“That whole pad was off. It was completely off and it was just bare,” Yates said.
He brought Bishop right away to his veterinarian.
“The complete callous and the dermis had peeled back, and you could see the sub dermis underneath, and some of them were bleeding a little bit,” said veterinarian Dr. Audrey Hess of the MidCity Veterinary Hospital.
Those callouses and top skin have fallen off now and his pads are healing well with the help of a biobalm treatment.
Dr. Hess has seen these burn wounds before.
“Every summer when it’s hot in Louisiana, we see several animals that come in with injuries to their paw pads,” Dr. Hess said.
It is very important for dog owners to know that dogs get rid of their rising body heat, in part, when the blood circulates through their pads.
But if their pads are standing or running on very, very hot asphalt, they can’t cool themselves down, and that rising body heat can
actually cause serious health dangers.Since a dog’s most prized possession is interacting with and pleasing their two-legged family members, it’s up to dog lovers to protect them from the heat.
“She told me to keeping him from rough places for now — asphalt, concrete, gravel. He’s been kind of crazy for now because he can’t go out and run like he wants to,” said Yates.
Dogs can overheat much more quickly than people can, so they need frequent drinks of water.
It also helps to hose dogs down with cool, not cold, water if they get hot.
Source: Hot asphalt can badly burn your pet’s paws
