Thaindian News

Washington, Sep 7 (IANS) A doctor’s white coat not only can send human pulse rate racing, but also has similar efffect on dogs.

Anxiety tied with being in a veterinary hospital raises the blood pressure (BP) in retired racing greyhounds, known to have higher-than-average BP in the first place, according to researchers.

The average systolic arterial pressure, the top number in a BP reading, in the dogs was about 30 points higher in a vet’s clinic when compared to that recorded at home, the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine reports.

“We see a lot of greyhounds and they are very high-strung dogs,” said Guillermo Couto, who teaches veterinary clinical sciences at the Ohio State University and senior study author.

“Some greyhounds come in here with blood pressure above what an instrument can read - that is 300 systolic,” said Couto, according to a university statement.

“We know this could not really be their blood pressure because these dogs would be dead. But we also almost never get blood pressure under 150 or 160 for systolic,” he added.

The environment seemed to make all the difference. BP readings at home were similar when taken by either a vet student or the dog’s owner. In general, normal blood pressure in dogs, as in humans, is 120 over 80.

Some animals’ BP readings normalise after they’ve had time to acclimate to the hospital setting, but in these greyhounds, that trend is less common.