Keeping Your Pet Safe and Cool During a Heat Wave

During summer, the temperature can increase more than usual, and it becomes a challenge to keep your pet cool during a heatwave. When the weather gets hotter, it becomes difficult for pets to keep themselves safe and cool. As a result, you have to take some precautionary measures to prevent your pets from a heatwave.

Tips for Keeping Your Pet Safe and Cool During a Heat Wave

Follow the below-given ways and prevent your pets from a heatwave.

  1. Keep Your Pet Indoors

If it is hot out there, don’t take your pets for a walk, especially during the daytime. However, if it’s necessary, you can take them in the morning and evening. If you have a large home, you can exercise your pet inside, just as long as it’s cool enough.

When you keep your pets indoors, it will reduce the risk of them suffering from a heatwave. Try to keep the space they are occupying as cool as possible using fans, or an air conditioner.  

  • Use Ice Cubes in Their Water Bowls

When it is hot outside, you drink more water to keep yourself hydrated. The same is the case with pets. A hydrated pet can be safe from a heatwave. Provide them more water than usual. Keep extra bowls of water and add ice cubes to them. It will keep the water fresh and cool for a long time.

  • Avoid Leaving Your Pet in the Car

Avoid leaving your pets in the car even when the temperature is moderate outside. Leaving your pet inside a vehicle during extreme temperatures can be fatal.. It only takes a few minutes.

  • Use Cooling Mats and Iced Bottles to Keep Cages Cool

Cooling mats can help your pets remain cool. You can make a cooling mat yourself by wrapping ice in a towel and keep it in their bed. Moreover, you can keep a frozen water bottle in their cage. It will help to lower the cage temperature.

  • Protect Your Pets from Hot Surfaces

When you decide to take your pet for a walk, ensure that the surface isn’t too hot. Sand and concrete can get hot quickly and burn your furry friend’s feet. You can check the surface; if it’s too hot for the back of your hand, it is surely too hot for pets. You can purchase dog booties to prevent their pads from burning.

  • Look for Signs of Heatstroke

You do everything right, but still, there is a possibility that your pet might suffer from heatstroke. Some signs of heatstroke can be panting, drooling, dehydration, increased body temperature, and rapid heart rate. So, whenever you notice any one of these during hot weather, it can be due to heatstroke. So, seek the help of a vet as soon as possible and cool your pet down!

Halloween can be an enjoyable time for kids and adults alike but can be a frighting experience for your four-legged friends. Little ghosts, witches and goblins will come knocking on your door. This will make your dog go into protection mode. Loud fireworks and other unfamiliar sounds will also spook your dog. We want to make sure we keep our furry friends safe and happy during Halloween.

Keep Halloween candy away from your pet! We may love to indulge and sneak a Halloween treat from the bowl from time to time, but you must make sure your pet does not indulge with you. A good portion of Halloween treats contain chocolate, and this can be fatal for your pet. The component theobromine is toxic to dogs and can cause diarrhea, vomiting, rapid breathing, increased heart rate and seizures. If your dog does get into some chocolate, the best course of action is to induce vomiting and call your preferred vet.

Chocolate isn't the only danger in those Halloween treats. Raisins can cause death in dogs, and certain nuts are toxic as well if ingested. Also, just like us, sweet candy can cause health issues like being overweight, and pancreatitis.

Do not leave your pets outside during Halloween. Unfortunately, there are people out there that like to prank animals on Halloween. They want to tease your animals, steal them or even kill them. This is especially true for black cats.

Shelter them and make them comfortable. Halloween tends to bring lots of fireworks. The district of Kitimat allows fireworks during Halloween, so make sure your pets will be relaxed during the loud sounds. Put them in a quiet room where they can hide, put the TV or some music on to help cover the noise.

Keep an eye on pumpkins, candles and electrical cords. With all the chaos going on, your pet may accidentally knock down your pumpkin. Make sure never to leave it unattended and to have a fire extinguisher nearby. Keep cords up high, during high-stress situations your pet may get tangled in them, or chew them.

Halloween can be a fun time for everyone if appropriately celebrated!

What is a Vaccination

A vaccination is a treatment to produce immunity against a specific disease. It is a biological preparation that often contains an agent that is similar to the disease causing organism that is weakened or killed its toxins or one of its surface proteins. By introducing these to the body, the body will know how to create the proper antibodies to combat the disease and become immune.

Why Should You Vaccinate your pets

Like in the Human world, there are many communicable diseases in the animal world. That’s why it is important to have your pets vaccinated.

Vaccinations have helped save the lives of millions of pets across the world. Vaccinating your pet doesn’t just save the life of your pet, but helps saves the lives of other animals who may be too young to be vaccinated, or cannot be vaccinated. This Diagram below shows how vaccinations can help

In this first diagram, it shows how a completely unvaccinated group can easily spread a disease to others.

In this second diagram it shows that when a large percentage of the animals are vaccinated, it helps protect those who are not vaccinated.

What to Vaccinate Against

There are many diseases that vaccinations can help prevent. In dogs, you should get them vaccinated for:

Cats Should be vaccinated for

All animals that are adopted from the Kitimat Community Humane Society will have already had their vaccinations, but be sure to check their medical record to confirm.

In summary Vaccinations help keep our pets healthy. Immunization can help eradicate certain diseases and prevent them from resurfacing, but only works if everyone is on board. If you have any questions about vaccinations or the health of your pet, you should contact your preferred vet.