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It’s time to enjoy the long, sunny days of summer. It’s a time for cookouts, campfires, pool parties, and just lots of outdoor fun! But summer heat and humidity can be dangerous, for humans and our furry friends.
When you are too hot, the blood vessels in your skin widen to carry the excess heat to your skin's surface. You may start to sweat. As the sweat evaporates, it helps cool your body. While you may be drenched from head to toe in perspiration, your furry friends release heat and regulate their temperature differently, and they don’t cool themselves as efficiently as we do. This means you have to help keep them cool to prevent potentially life-threatening illnesses such as heatstroke.
Heatstroke is a very serious condition that can cause damage to your pet’s internal organs, sometimes to the point where they stop functioning. It can quickly become fatal and requires urgent treatment. You can help to prevent heatstroke by making sure your pet has everything it needs to stay cool.
1. Provide Access to Shade
If your pet is kept outdoors, be sure they have access to shade. Tree shade and tarps are ideal because they don't obstruct air flow. Good ventilation is critical because many animals lose heat by panting which relies on good airflow. A doghouse does not provide relief from heat. In fact, it makes it worse.
2. Offer Plenty of Water
All pets should have access to plenty of fresh clean drinking water at all times. Pets can dehydrate quickly, especially in summer months. Access to plenty of fresh, clean water is extremely important when it’s hot or humid.
3. Avoid Hot Surfaces
Hot sand, concrete, asphalt areas or any other hot surfaces reflect heat, and being so close to the ground, your pet’s body can heat up quickly. Check the pavement for heat before taking your dog on a walk. Place your hand or a bare foot on the surface for 10 seconds. If it is too hot for you to keep your hand or foot on it, then it is too hot for your pet.
4. Limit Walks
On very hot days, limit walks to early morning or evening hours, and be especially careful with pets with white-colored ears, who are more susceptible to skin cancer, and short-nosed pets, who typically have difficulty breathing. Walk your dog on the grass to avoid hot pavement. Always carry water with you to keep your dog from dehydrating.
5. Keep Cool Inside and Out
Keep your pet from overheating indoors or out with a cooling body wrap, vest or mat. Soak these products in cool water, and they'll stay cool (but usually dry) for up to three days. If your dog doesn't find baths stressful, see if they enjoy a cooling soak. Don’t rely on a fan as fans don't cool off pets as effectively as they do people.
6. Never Leave Your Pet in a Car
On a warm day, temperatures inside a vehicle can rise rapidly to dangerous levels. On an 85-degree day, the temperature inside a car with the windows opened slightly can reach 102 degrees within 10 minutes. After 30 minutes, the temperature will reach 120 degrees. Your pet may suffer irreversible organ damage or die. In West Virginia, it is unlawful for any person to intentionally, knowingly or recklessly, leave an animal unattended and confined in a motor vehicle when physical injury to or death of the animal is likely to result.
7. Know the Symptoms of Heatstroke
Watch for heavy panting, glazed eyes, a rapid heartbeat, difficulty breathing, excessive thirst, lethargy, fever, dizziness, lack of coordination, profuse salivation, vomiting, a deep red or purple tongue, seizure and unconsciousness. Animals are at particular risk for heat stroke if they are very old, very young, overweight, not conditioned to prolonged exercise, or have heart or respiratory disease. Some breeds of dogs—like boxers, pugs, shih tzus and other dogs and cats with short muzzles—will have a much harder time breathing in extreme heat.
If you suspect your pet is suffering from heatstroke, move him into the shade or an air-conditioned area. Apply ice packs or cold towels to his head, neck and chest or run cool (not cold) water over him. Let him drink small amounts of cool water or lick ice cubes. Take him to a veterinarian immediately.
8. Leave Pets at Home on July 4
One additional tip … many pets are fearful of loud noises, and more dogs go lost on July 4 than any other day of the year. Keep your pet safe from the noise in a quiet, sheltered and escape-proof area of your home.