Prevention is always cheaper and less painful than the treatment, but in case an emergency happens despite all your precautions, please check Emergency Vet Clinic numbers archived in Karen’s Corner,  October 2011 and April 2012.

Protect your pets from extreme heat and other summertime hazards.

Yes the so-called dog days of summer can be deadly to your dogs and cats.  First and foremost – and this can not be said often enough – keep your pets cool and hydrated.  Many dogs and cats cannot tolerate high temperatures, especially if accompanied by high humidity, without your help.  It goes without saying that your pets should stay home on warm sunny days, because even on sunny 70-degree days, the temperature in your closed car will quickly rise over 100 degrees. Leaving the windows open a little won’t help, and leaving the windows open wider will give your pets an opportunity to escape, or they may be stolen.  All of this applies to your children as well.  Do not leave your pets in a closed garage without air conditioning, and if they stay in the yard, make sure there is plenty of shade and fresh cold water.  Dogs will not drink warm water.  I make large amounts of ice cubes ahead of time for my outside dogs. I take ice cubes out from time to time.  If I’m going out, I fill large pans half full with water and freeze them ahead of time.  Just before I leave I take the pans to the dogs and fill each pan to the top with cold water.  This keeps it cool longer than ice cubes do.  Another option is to make blocks of ice in freezer boxes to cool off the water from time to time.

            Since pets do not have the cooling mechanisms people have, heat stroke may occur.  The brain cannot tolerate excessively high body temperatures and your pet will die if not cooled down without delay.  If you see your pet panting excessively or lying lifelessly, pour cool (never icy) water over him/her. Put ice cubes in a towel and apply over the head.  If you bring him into the air conditioned house, do not place him where the air is blowing right on him. Cooling must be done gradually.  Use common sense.   Puppies, kittens and older pets are even more at risk.  Take special care, and pamper your old friends.  Their years of loyalty to you earned it.

Needless to say, do not encourage your dog to run.  He may want to run to please you, and could quickly collapse and die.  Puppies, like children, will play until they collapse if you do not stop them.  So keep playtime low-key and do it only in the early morning and evening hours when it’s a little cooler.

            If your dog is in a pen with concrete flooring, it helps to hose down the concrete frequently during the day.  Keep pets off asphalt.  It gets very hot and burns their feet.

            Keep your dogs and cats well groomed.  Daily grooming prevents hairballs in your cat’s stomach..  Do not shave pets.  Their hair is designed to provide insulation from heat as well as cold.  Do not clip hair of a longhaired pet unless you find mats.  Mats won’t form if you groom regularly.  There is one exception to the no clipping rule.  If you take a longhaired dog swimming, the water-logged hair may pull him down.  So watch carefully.  Put swim vests on your dogs if you take them swimming. If your dogs swim in the pool, try to keep them from drinking chlorinated pool water which can make them sick, and wash the chlorine off the coat after swimming.

            Make sure your pets are current on vaccinations, heartworm medication and flea/tick prevention.  Since these products are toxic if not used properly, read the directions for application and disposal of containers.  Never use a dog product on a cat. Products designed for dogs are toxic to cats. 

            Be vigilant and catch hot spots and ear infections at the start.  Hot weather is breeding time for parasites, bacteria and fungi. Your veterinarian has the best products for treatment of these seemingly minor troubles, which will become big ones if not caught at the start.  Flea and tick preventives usually keep biting flies away.  But if they still attack your dog’s ear tips, you need to put a fly repellent on them. There are many products designed for that purpose, available at vet clinics and pet supply stores.  Or, you can pick up udder balm (not bag balm) at Farm and Fleet Stores.  It’s sticky but contains no toxic chemicals. So you may be able to apply it even if there is a fly bite already.  Read the directions.  If there is severe damage to the ear tips, you will have to apply antibiotic ointment and the dog will have to spend some time indoors until the bite wound is healed. If left outside, the pet will suffer great pain from additional bites into the unhealed wound, because the antibiotic ointment is not a repellent.  

            If you go to watch fireworks on the 4^th of July, leave your dogs home.  The noise hurts their sensitive ears, and some dogs become quite “spooked.”    And never expose them to firecrackers.  Needless to say, keep unused fireworks out of the reach of both kids and pets.  They may contain toxic chemicals such as potassium nitrate and arsenic.

            If you have a barbecue, keep alcoholic beverages from pets, and remember that fatty, spicy picnic foods and sweets (chocolate, those containing artificial sweeteners) will make your pets sick or may kill them.  So be firm. Tell guests and children to refrain from feeding pets, unless you enjoy cleaning up messes that will occur later in the house, or worse, a late-night trip to the Emergency Vet Clinic.

More dog bites occur in the summer than at any other time of year.  One reason is that children are home from school and spend more time playing with dogs, and, unfortunately, teasing them and often provoking the bite.  Another reason, plain and simple:  Dogs get crabby when they feel miserable due to the hot weather, just like people.  The family pet is not an exception.  We expect our pets to be flawless, but just as we have our flaws, they have theirs.  This applies to cats as well. Their scratches and bites can be serious too.  So please be vigilant and supervise the children when they are playing with cats or dogs.  Teach them to heed warning signs such as growling and leave the pet alone.  A dog makes his displeasure known in the only language he knows. 

Quite often people are bitten when trying to separate fighting dogs.  If you get too close, a fighting dog – in the heat of the battle - will very likely perceive you as another dog wanting to join in the fight, and will lash out at you.  Don’t take this risk.  Better to distract the fighters, i.e., yell your pet’s name, followed by a firm “Sit!”  If you have two metal objects handy, such as large pans or garbage can lids, you could bang them together to produce a very loud noise.  No guarantee that it will break up the fight, but the odds are favorable.  Hitting the fighters has never broken up a fight.  So don’t do it.

If you ever wondered about sunburn in pets, yes dogs and cats can get it.  Cats with white ears are especially prone to get sunburn on the tips and edges of the ears.  In dogs with pink noses, that part of their body will burn, and so will shaved areas of a pet’s body.  Sunscreens specially for pets are available, but if the area where it is applied can be reached, it gets licked off.    And yes, animals can get skin cancer, especially in areas that have previously been sunburned.  So it’s better to keep pets out of the sun as much as possible, especially during the middle of the day when the sun’s rays are strongest.

There is so much to say about traveling with pets, and not enough space left. So I will cover this important subject briefly now and  will say more next month.  If you take your pets on vacation, make sure they are healthy and vaccinations are up to date.  Carry a sheet with this information and your vet’s phone number with you.  Have identification, including rabies tags, on their collars.  If they are not microchipped, please consider having that done by your veterinarian before the trip.  Make sure the hotels or motels you want to stay in allow pets, and do a good job cleaning up after them.  If you can not take a crate, acquire harnesses for safe traveling.  Take enough water along.  If that’s not possible, switch them over to the new water gradually.  If you have to use hotel/motel water, run some out first or use it for washing hands in order not to waste water, and never use water from the warm water faucet.  Warm water tends to leach lead from pipes.  Many lead pipes have been replaced, but don’t take chances.

Please do not forget the critters.  Keep the bird bath full, and set out pans of water for other animals.  Without access to water they will die.

(Karen’s Corner pet health tips are not meant to replace veterinary care when needed.)