High temperatures in the Bluff City can make man’s best friend feel just as hot as his owner.
Extreme heat is challenging for dogs and cats because they cannot effectively regulate body heat in exceptionally hot and humid climates. Along with elderly and overweight pets, hot conditions are especially dangerous for shorter-snout pets such as Persian cats and pugs because they have a harder time breathing, according to the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Dog owner Robert Webb said the summer heat, along with seasonal allergens, has changed his usual outdoor routine with his dog and shortened the time they spend together outside.
“We used to walk her, and then we found out when she gets back in the car she’s panting, she’s tired … so we don’t really go walking anymore in this heat like it is,” Webb said. “The hardest part is just the extreme heat, and she’s allergic to stuff. She turns pink when she gets real hot with the allergies and stuff, so we keep her inside.”
The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for Memphis in June as heat indexes rose above 100. Prolonged exposure to temperatures like these can cause a myriad of health issues and illnesses for people and their pets, such as extreme exhaustion and dehydration, fainting and heat stroke. This information is particularly alarming considering the hottest days of the year, known colloquially as the actual dog days of summer, did not begin until July 22.
Another element that makes it uncomfortable for pets is the increasing temperature of the ground, particularly pavement and sidewalk terrains. Paige Meierhofer, director of sales at Dogtopia, a dog care and boarding facility in Collierville, Tennessee, said too much heat on an animal’s paw pads from the ground “generally hurts them.”
“If you can’t walk on it with your bare feet, a dog definitely can’t walk on it … they’re going to feel it the same way you do,” Meierhofer said. “That’s when you have to take very special care of your dog because they straight up can’t walk on the ground outside without it being excruciating pain for them.”
Angela Briggs, a veterinarian at Southwind Animal Hospital in Memphis, said the hot conditions of the summer affect pets the same way it affects people and in some ways, even worse.
“Overheating in pets is a real thing, and we treat it all of the time, so it’s something everyone should be aware of,” Briggs said. “Dogs and cats are a little bit more susceptible to it because they actually physically can’t sweat, so that heat stays retained. They also obviously have a lot more hair than we do, and that hair coat usually kind of insulates the heat … it actually makes them hotter than normal.”
Briggs said pets should be inside during these hot conditions but should have access to shade, shelter and water if being outside is necessary.
“Being outside for more than 15 or 20 minutes, any time that the heat is above 100 degrees with the heat index, that’s when I start to get worried for sure,” Briggs said. “Obviously, they need to have water 100 percent of the time that they’re outside.”
Overheating can be observed in both dogs and cats as they begin to grow tired, lie down, drool excessively or pant heavily with open mouths. Overheating becomes dangerous when the internal body temperature of a pet rises above the normal 100 to 102.5 degree range, escalating to heat stroke.
Heat stroke happens when the internal body temperature of a pet gets close to or above 105 degrees, and may result in vomiting, diarrhea, deliriousness, collapse or even death.
For a pet that is too hot, Briggs said the best way to cool it down is to bring it inside and cool off its feet and abdomen with cold water from a hose or tub. If a pet succumbs to heat stroke, she said they should be taken to a veterinarian or hospital immediately, as the animal could be in need of full hospitalization.
“Usually, we’re needing to get them IV fluids through an IV catheter,” Briggs said. “There’s a lot more than just a 15 or 20-minute cool-down. The heat stroke period, even getting their temperature back down, can last for hours and sometimes even a day or so.”
Leaving pets inside vehicles during the summer is also extremely unsafe. Even with cracked windows, the inside of a parked car rises almost 20 degrees within 10 minutes and about 35 degrees within half an hour, according to the American Veterinary Medicine Foundation. That means in just 10 minutes, a kitten left inside a cool car in 75-degree weather could soon find itself teetering on the edge of life and death trapped inside of a 95-degree hot box.
While heat indexes range in the 90s and beyond, the safest place for a pet to be is inside away from the hot weather and off the sizzling pavement. If a pet must be outside, it needs access to shade, shelter and, above all, water to stay alive and healthy.
