Although localised cooling is heavily focused on helping a dog with pain, some dog owners may be worried that this method of treatment is actually doing more harm than good. Cold temperatures can be very detrimental to canine health, and experts recommend that domestic pets, particularly those who aren’t accustomed to severely cold conditions, shouldn’t be exposed to temperatures below 7 degrees celsius* without wearing warming and protective winter clothing.
This begs the question of whether it’s safe and humane to apply ice packs or to run an ice bath, for dogs with arthritis.
Interestingly, it’s been found that localised cooling, and even ice baths to some extent, are not risky for dogs as long as they’re only exposed to the cold temperatures temporarily and allowed to warm back up to their normal base temperature afterwards. Although locally applied ice packs have a significant effect on the intra-articular temperature, causing it to drop dramatically and reduce inflammation, the core temperature, when taken rectally, remains remarkably stable. In fact, ice packs applied for up to 15 minutes typically have no effect on core temperature, and there’s an average drop of just 0.5 degrees celsius after a 30 minutes application.
As can be expected, ice baths tend to reduce core temperature a little more, but with an average drop of just 1.6 degrees, this is nothing a dog can’t handle, and certainly won’t cause a dog to be in pain.
Be very careful not to ‘burn’ the dog’s skin with cold packs.