drferox:

I’ve only practiced in Australia, so I don’t have a comparison to other countries, but they definitely suffer in the heat. So do all our brachycephalic breeds – french bulldogs, boston terriers, pekingese, dogue de bordeaux etc. Pugs get the worst rap because they’re the most common of the brachycephalic breeds and they’re frequently obese which makes their propensity to overheating significantly worse.

On top of that, because they’re basically always panting and wheezing, owners don’t recognize the increased panting as a symptom and are then surprised when the poor thing keels over, dead.

The absolute worst example of this was an owner that walked not one, but both of their overweight, pugs to the clinic, in the middle of the day on a stinking hot summer day for a minor skin complaint.

These dogs arrived with their eyes bulging, leg muscles tremoring, and temperatures on nearly 42 degrees Celsius (108 Fahrenheit). They were struggling to breathe and cool themselves so badly that their gum colour was turning purple instead of pink, and their blood oxygen readings in room air were below 80%.

The dogs, of course, were rushed through triage by our nurses as an emergency, because they were. While they set up intravenous fluid sets and active cooling, I went to ask the owner’s permission to begin giving first aid cooling to their heat stressed dogs.

Which they declined.

“They’re fine.”

“They always pant like that.”

“We’re just here for his rash.”

“I don’t have time for that.”

Because their owner absolutely, steadfast refused to believe that their dogs were going into heat stroke, and was actually getting pissed off at me for ‘wasting their time and not looking at the skin’.

What am I supposed to do in that situation? Treatment’s actively declined, the owner is belligerent, and the dogs are getting steadily worse as you stare at them because their airways are so atrocious to begin with? And if they walk these dogs back home, in this heat, they will almost certainly die?

I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, but I snatched the dogs, gave them to the waiting nurses in the treatment room, and returned to the conversation with the owner. And ultimately ended up gaining consent to treat so both dogs didn’t up and die on me by offering to do it for free, and keep the dogs there all day so the owner could get to work, which was everything I could offer to get consent for emergency treatment for a condition the owner had just caused.

Can you tell I’m still kind of furious about this?

And then come evening the pugs’ owners showed up to walk them home. And got even more pissed off at me for refusing to release them unless they came with their car and air conditioning.

So yeah, pugs have a very bad time in the heat.