Keeping animals cool in hot weather

[Ragged Robin]

What with one thing and another and the changed demography and invironmnet,of North Cyprus,, the joy of sharing my house with dogs is turning into a nightmare! The latest is:

Since one was poisoned in my own garden, I have always shut my dogs in the house when I leave it .

Most years I havent bothered about the heat, since I have wrought iron grills and can leave windows open, and the dogs being Cyprus rescue dogs, presumably are tough and street wise enough to find the coolest spot. This year , however, with the temperature reaching exceptional levels, after reading advice in an article on the Internet, I have been leaving a fan on low setting (even though Im dreading the electric bill) Now I read on another thread that this can be dangerous and start a fire ,

Bearing in mind dogs only sweat through their tongues and paws and are particularly prone to heat stroke, and one of mine is very old, any advice suggestions?

I was also horrified to learn that in less than l0 mins an enclosed car can become dangerously hot for dogs. I cant afford an air con car, and sometimes one is stuck in traffic jams for over l0 mins, and there is no longer any shaded parking. Again any advice welcomed.

[rowan]

what a kind and caring owner you are to be so concerned about your dogs in this heat. Not sure if this will be helpful or not but one way is to losely wrap the dog in a wet, cold towel. I realise your dogs are indoor dogs so this might make a bit of a mess. My dogs are outside so it is slightly different for mine but I do use the cold wet towel, I also have a paddling pool which one goes and lies in to cool down.

[Ragged Robin]

Thanks for showing an interest Rowan. Actually beyond leaving windows open and making sure they had plenty of water I hadnt worried too much before.

However there was a post on here about a dog left in a car. The post disappeared so I assume the Mods deleted it because the poster was rather irate, but it started me thinking and regretting it had been deleted because people might not be aware of the risk, so I checked the Internet and was horrified to find how quickly a dog can succombe to heat stroke and how serious it is. The wet towel is one of the treatments recommended in the article: but my concern is to stop them getting overheated in the first place., particularly if I need to take them in the car (eg to Vets) where I dont always have control over how long were stuck in the sun, and suffer myself!

They dont like water - and the occasional bath is a regular stuggle - but I will try the wet towel if hey get overheated , mainly tiled floors anyway!

[rowan]

Hi again, you are right to be concerned about the effects of heat stroke and it is more dangerous than some people realise, so carry on being concerned. I take your point about when you are in the car and stuck in traffic. One thing you can buy in the UK (my sister did this after her dog nearly died of heatstroke!!) is a battery fan which attaches to the dashboard of the car. Not sure if you can get them here, the South may be a better bet, or buy on line if you know anyone who could bring it out for you. You probably would only need to switch it on when you were stationary in traffic and so the battery should last a while.

Try the wet towell if you need to, my dogs are outdoor dogs but I still need to do it on occasions if I think they are suffering and even one of them who will walk three miles to avoid water of any kind, does not really object too much to this treatment.

Hope some of this is of some use.

[JoandJelly]

You can also get fans that plug into the cigarette lighter but again maybe online rather than here.

[stellasstar1]

You can also get fans that you charge up and will then work for about 4 hours. The D.I.Y. shop next to Carrfour in the South sells them. They are also great if the electric gets cut off.

[Mozgor]

Hi

I was trying to source cool mats for my cats and you can get larger ones for dogs as well as cooling coats!

Apparently a company called Petza in Istanbul may have them and they do mail order, if not the UK defo sell them.

Good luck and I totally understand your dilemma, we have elderly cats.

Moyra

[THREE LIZARDS]

I thoroughly hose my two dogs down, especially under the belly and round the neck. They shake (Nice... thats me cooled off) and go off and lay in the shade.
Seems to work for them.
Watch out you dont burn them with the hot water sitting in the hose, run it cool first!

They also have a BIG plastic washing up bowl of water that they roll in.