How to Take a Dog's Temperature

Series Summary

As “man's best friend,” we have a welcomed obligation to care for our pals, and every pet owner knows that this is can be a full time job. Our dogs lovingly weave their way into our family, and much like a child that encounters the occasional accident, dogs can find their way into trouble as well. So, if we keep a handy dandy first aid kit for our human blunders, why not incorporate the same preparation for our animals?

In this expert video series, you will learn basic first aid for your dog. Elise McMahon gives you advice about what to keep in your dog first aid kit. She also helps you figure out your dog's normal temperature. Elise handles a variety of other topics like: ear infections, eye infections, diarrhea, and torn toe nails. She also tells you about Kennel Cough and its symptoms. Once you have these tips, you will know what to do if your dog goes into shock or develops symptoms of Bloat. With these clips, you can keep your best friend healthy. So, start creating your own dog first aid kit today!

Video Transcript

"So we are going to talk about how to take your dog's temperature. There are times you might notice that there is something a little bit off of your dog and you might want to take their temperature rather than having to depend on going to a vet. It is very simple, very easy; a little more complicated on a hairy dog but you want to have a dog thermometer and I have this one clearly marked. I don't want to use it on myself or some other human by accident, so I have a doggy thermometer and you need to have some Vaseline. Okay so I am just going to coat the bottom of the thermometer with Vaseline. Ty, stay right here. Good boy! Coat it there with Vaseline and I am going to turn it on, go ahead and clear. Okay, good. Ready to be inserted. Now I have to locate the dog's anus and as I said he is a heavy coated breed, a little bit more difficult but not impossible. So I am just going to find the dog's anus and I have coated the thermometer so I can insert it into the dog's anus and I can hold it here until the thermometer beeps. A dog's temperature is higher naturally; baseline temperature is higher than humans. So a temperature of 101 to 102 is normal. This one is already up to 101.1. That is normal temperature for a dog. Nothing to be worried about. If your dog is ancy, you might want to have another person hold the dog's head but it is really not something that is too uncomfortable for the dog. You can see here this guy is not too stressed out by it and we are just going to wait here until we've got the beep. The thermometer tells us it is done. I can see here that it is at 101.4 so it is still a perfectly normal range for a dogs temperature. I would recommend getting this kind of a digital thermometer to take your dogs temperature rather than a glass one with mercury. Okay the thermometer has beeped. It has told us that it is ready so I can pull it out and I can read that the temperature is 101.49 so this is in the normal range. What you want to do is after you have taken your dog's temperature and it is normal temperature, you know that the dog is fine in that area. You want to clean off your thermometer with soap and water and put it back your dog thermometer container. "