Heatstroke in summer: protecting pets in Batumi's climate
Recognising heatstroke early and the first-aid steps that save lives.
Batumi summers are hot, but the number that actually hurts pets is the humidity. On a July afternoon here the air is often 80% saturated, and that changes everything, because dogs and cats do not cool themselves the way we do. They have almost no functional sweat glands. A dog's cooling system is evaporation from the tongue and airways — panting — and evaporation barely works when the air is already full of water. A 30°C day in a dry climate and a 30°C day in Batumi are not the same day for your dog.
Heatstroke is when that system fails and body temperature climbs past roughly 40°C. It is not a mild illness that resolves with a drink of water. At those temperatures proteins begin to denature, the gut lining leaks, blood clots abnormally, and the kidneys and liver start to fail. Dogs die of heatstroke every summer, and many of the ones that survive are left with lasting damage. Recognising it early is genuinely the difference between an outpatient visit and an intensive-care case.
## The pets most at risk
Some animals have far less margin than others. Flat-faced breeds — bulldogs, pugs, boxers, Persian cats — have compressed airways, so the panting that is supposed to save them is inefficient from the start; some collapse at temperatures a mongrel would shrug off. Overweight pets carry insulation they cannot take off. Thick double coats, black coats, elderly pets, puppies and kittens, and any animal with heart or airway disease all have reduced reserve. A young, fit, short-coated dog is the safest case — and young fit dogs still die, usually because they were happy to keep chasing a ball long past the point where they should have stopped. They will not self-regulate. That is your job.
## What heatstroke looks like
Early: heavy, frantic panting, restlessness, bright red gums and tongue, thick drooling, and a dog that wants to lie down and won't settle.
Progressing: weakness, staggering, vomiting or diarrhoea (sometimes with blood), gums turning pale or bluish, glazed eyes, confusion.
Late: collapse, seizures, unconsciousness. By this stage organ damage is already happening.
Cats hide it better. A cat panting with its mouth open is not “a bit warm” — cats almost never pant, and an open-mouthed cat is an emergency until proven otherwise.
## What to do in the first ten minutes
These minutes matter more than anything that happens later, so cooling starts before travel, not after.
Get the animal out of the heat — shade, an air-conditioned room, anywhere cooler. Then wet them thoroughly with **cool water, not ice water**: pour or hose it over the whole body, concentrating on the belly, the inner thighs, the armpits and the paws where blood vessels run close to the surface. Ice-cold water is a mistake that feels right; it makes surface blood vessels clamp shut and traps heat inside, and it can cause shivering, which generates more heat still. Cool tap water is correct.
Get air moving over the wet coat — a fan, an open car window, anything. Evaporation is what removes heat, and wetting without airflow does much less. Offer small amounts of cool water to drink if the pet is alert and swallowing normally; never pour water into the mouth of a collapsed or semi-conscious animal, because it goes into the lungs. Do not cover them in wet towels and leave them: a towel that warms up becomes insulation.
Then bring them to us, and phone on the way so we are ready. Keep the car cool with the windows open or the air conditioning on and keep wetting them during the drive. Stop active cooling once they are comfortable and panting has calmed — overcooling is a real risk in the other direction.
And this is the part owners find hardest to believe: **a pet that looks recovered still needs examining.** The dangerous consequences of heatstroke — kidney injury, clotting problems, gut damage — surface hours later, and by then they are much harder to treat. A dog that cooled down and seems normal can still be in trouble the next morning.
## Preventing it, which is the real answer
Walk early and late. In July and August that means before eight in the morning and after eight in the evening. Test the pavement with the back of your hand: if you cannot keep it there for five seconds, it will burn paw pads, and asphalt near the boulevard holds heat long after sunset.
Carry water on every walk. Keep several bowls at home and refill them; add a splash of water to food in hot weather. Shade is not optional — a balcony or yard with no shade is not a place to leave an animal at midday.
Never leave a pet in a parked car. Not for five minutes, not with the windows cracked, not in the shade. A car in Batumi sun reaches lethal temperatures in minutes, and it is the single most common way this happens.
Skip the midday exercise entirely and swap it for a game indoors. Cooling mats, a damp towel on the floor to lie on, and a fan all help. If your pet is flat-faced, overweight, elderly or has heart or airway disease, treat every hot day as a day to stay in.
Beaches are pleasant but they are not shade. Sand reflects heat, sea water leaves salt on the coat that increases irritation, and swimming does not prevent heatstroke — several of the cases we see each summer are dogs that had been in the water.
If you are unsure whether what you are seeing is heatstroke, do not spend twenty minutes deciding. Start cooling and call us. Nobody has ever regretted acting early on this one.