High humidity can trigger arthritis, pain and skin disorders?

While heatstroke is what we are sometimes afraid of in hot summer, it’s humidity, a silent culprit to poor heath, needs our caution. Hong Kong is famous for humid weather, sometimes its humidity level outrageously hits 85-90%.

Even our human body cannot handle it well. While our skin, as the largest human organ, helps cool us off, dogs can only sweat through paws and keep cool by panting which evaporates moisture from their lungs and takes the heat away from their tiny bodies. As you can imagine, the weather and humidity can take a toll on pets more than us.

Health problems triggered by humid weather conditions:

◆ High humidity nurtures the growth of pathogenic fungi, bacteria and parasites, and it is more likely to cause skin problems in dogs, and result in relapses for dogs who have previously suffered from skin diseases.

◆ Older dogs are particularly prone to pain conditions as neuralgia, rheumatism, arthritis, myositis and etc when they face unfavourable humid weather. Do you know that dogs have extremely high tolerance for pain? When you notice that your dog sometimes fidgets or his tail is always down (unlike usual times when he wags his tail in excitement to greet you), he is probably suffering from pain.

Preventive measures and therapy you can take at home:

◆ It is best to keep the humidity below 60%. A dehumidifier helps monitor and reduce the current humidity.

◆ In hot summer, it is more ideal to turn on air conditioner than fan (if your budget allows), because air conditioning system can control the temperature and help reduce the humidity level. Fans do help generate airflow, but they cannot effectively control humidity and keep pets cool.

◆ If it is humid and rainy and your dog shows symptoms of joint pain:

1. Massage your dog. The logic is simple: massage improves blood circulation that is not running smoothly, and makes the blockage in blood vessels unobstructed. No blockage, no pain.

2. Heat therapy. Make good use of a moxa stick (moxibustion), electromagnetic wave lamp or far infrared (FIR) lamp. If you don’t have these tools at home, you can simply use the warm water bag to apply on the affected area.

3. If your dog’s pain and discomfort persist, please be sure to visit a vet.

Hellodog does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See more details here.