Not all canines can cope with extreme cold: Nunavut dog owner

Even with shelter, one of Page Burt’s dogs got hypothermia last week during an extreme cold snap in Rankin Inlet. Burt is warning other dog owners to check their animals and bring them indoors if they appear cold. (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

RANKIN INLET—When Page Burt went out to feed her dog team last week, she noticed one of the animals retching and stumbling around his doghouse after he’d eaten.

Burt knew right away that those were symptoms of hypothermia; she brought the dog inside her home and lay him on warm blankets for six hours, the time it took for him to recover.

It’s no surprise—temperatures across Nunavut and Nunavik have dipped to extreme and record-breaking lows this winter.

In Rankin Inlet, the temperature has remained below -30 C for most of February, dropping to -45 C this past weekend.

Burt’s advice to dog owners: keep an eye on your animals.

“These low temperatures are deadly for dogs left outside without shelter,” she said. “And many dogs here have no shelter.”

Other dogs in the Kivalliq community haven’t been as fortunate as Burt’s.

Rankin Inlet firefighters, who also serve as bylaw officers, have discovered a number of dogs that froze to death outside their owners’ homes over the last couple of weeks.

One was a golden retriever mix; others are husky mixes who don’t have the layers to keep them warm outdoors in temperatures below -30 C.

Animals should be brought indoors in extreme cold, said Burt, a lay vaccinator in Rankin Inlet.

Dog owners who do provide a doghouse or shelter should regularly clean out the snow in that shelter, turn it away from the wind and, ideally, line those shelters with old blankets or animal hides, she said.

Dogs also need fresh drinking water through the winter months.

Like a human exposed to extreme cold, a dog will shiver and appear weak in the early stages of hypothermia. As the cold sets in, so will muscle stiffness, shallow breathing and stupor.

If you find your animal in that condition, bring it indoors, Burt said, but don’t immediately apply heat.

“If you go from -60 C to 27 C, that’s a huge change of temperature, which could cause a heart attack,” she said.

She suggests instead putting some blankets in the dryer to warm them, and then laying the dog on the blankets. Over time, you can wrap the animal in blankets.

It can take several hours for an animal to recover, Burt said, so give them time to regain their normal body temperature.