Dogs and cats are very sensitive to the hot and dry summer weather. When letting your pets outside during the summer season, you need to take some easy precautions to help protect them from the heat and humidity. Here are 9 important summer weather safety tips for pets.
1. Place a dish of water outside and keep it filled with fresh water. Even though your pet doesn’t stay outside 24 hours a day, they still need fresh water to drink when they’re outside playing or doing their business.
2. On extremely HOT days, keep your pet outside for shorter periods of time. It’s better to take them out more frequently, for short periods of time than to let them out there in the sweltering heat.
3. If your dog starts panting and/or breathing heavily, it’s a sign that they’re over-heated. Bring them indoors immediately or spray them down with a hose to cool them.
4. Sidewalks and roadways heat up fast! Your pet’s paws are super sensitive to extreme heat or cold. Avoid walking your pet on these types of surfaces on extremely hot days.
5. Don’t let your pets in a locked car, not even for a few minutes or with the window’s cracked open. This inside temperature in an automobile is always much higher than the outdoor air temperature. Pets can get very sick and can die from the exposure to the extreme heat.
6. Limit your pet’s outdoor exercise during hot days! Instead, give them something physical to do indoors where it’s cooler.
7. If you and your pet are going to be spending time outside, make sure you find a nice shady area for them to spend time in. Just like humans, animals prefer the shade during hot summer days.
8. If your pet is going to be spending considerable time outdoors, consider applying a “pet” sunscreen to their skin. Just like humans, pets can get sunburn and skin cancer, so one of the best things you can do for your furry friends is to buy special sunscreen from a retailer like PETZOO to help protect them from the sun.
9. Protect your pets from fleas, ticks and mosquitoes! You can buy products at your local pet supply store or purchase products directly from your vet.
Dogs and cats are just like humans and are sensitive to the heat & humidity of summer. By taking these important precautions you can ensure that your pet will be remain healthy & happy during the summertime season.
These are all very important tips for taking care of pets on hot days. It always bothers me to see a dog left in a locked car with the window cracked open. I did not know that there was also sunscreen made for animals.
This is a great reminder, especially this weekend when temps will soar well over 100. It should be 110 here Monday–crazy. The really little guys, like my Yorkie really need to keep hydrated. I would keep them all inside when it’s hot like this.
These are good reminders and a very important post. We have a small dog in a maltipoo and, before her, we had a teacup puddle. We often take walks, but my daughter often ends up carrying the dog on the way home. We don’t think that their little legs have to really move for our steps. Plus, carrying water with you for them is good if you take longer walks.
Thanks for these reminders that we have to be mindful of how the summer weather can affect our dogs. A A major concern regarding mosquitos is that they can transmit heartworm, so we keep our dogs on a heartworm medication and have them tested yearly. It’s not cheap, but it’s well worth it to protect our pooches from that potentially fatal parasite.
I totally agree Anne! A lot of dogs who get heartworm don’t even survive the treatment to get rid of those nasty things!
Great tips for sure and hopefully ones people will heed. I might also add that all white animals can get sunburned- it is tough on them. All black animals can overheat quickly. I have an all black dog, and boy you can sure tell the heat gets to him on a sunny day. Pets are part of our family, I am mindful of thier comfort!
I’m very sensitive to hot weather. I didn’t know there was sunscreen for pets.
Here in SoCal where I live this is such a big concern. My Minpin, Milo, loves the sun and being warm, but when temps really climb I don’t let him stay outside too long.
I really enjoyed reading this post and as usual I learned something that I did not know. I had no idea that they have pet sunscreen we have got to get some of that for our little girl. We love our pets like family and are always mindful of all weather conditions. Our pets live in the house so they are pretty spoiled. Nothing gets me more upset than to see a pet locked in a hot car I can not dial 911 fast enough.
Thankyou for Sharing these 9 important weather tips for Pets! I always watch the weather before I let my 2 pooches outside. if its cold they wear boots and a hoodie coats. In the hot summer I keep a close eye on them; so they don’t get to hot! I never knew they had sunscreen for a pooch I didn’t even know they could get sunburned? Thankyou for the advice! I will buy some asap! 🙂