Best MSE ways to keep your pets cool in the summer heat - 2019

minimad1970

dontone wrote: »

I have a Basset. He loves sunbathing but because of his weight and extra folds, I only let him out for a short period of time and have to make him (bribe in other words) come inside.
I have a 12" desk fan that i put on the floor and he loves to lay in front off, I put ice cubes in his water dish when he goes to it, and he loves orange flavour ice lollies.
He hasn't been walkies for a few days as he struggles to cope, even when it gets a bit cooler. The car has been a no-no too. He's currently snoring his head off in his basket atm, the heat doesn't half get to him (bless)

BTW a little off topic, but does anybody else's pooch get hayfever?

My Border Terrier loves to lay in the sun as well. Then he comes indoors and hogs the fan. When they cut the grass in the field we walk in he sneezes all the way round.

dawnie1972

Big tip from living abroad - keep the curtains/blinds closed to keep the house cooler. Only this week i had to help a lady who had been running round the park with her staffi during midday (hottest time of the day) then dog collapsed in a heat - she was throwing water over it which is dangerous as the dog can go into shock because of the change of temperature so we gave the dog some water to drink and laid him in the shade and allowed him to get his breath back - he was overweight as well, but she was obviously more interested in her fitness than her dogs welfare.

sfmedusa

The cats I have now don't seem to have any problems with hot weather. My old girl Tiffy used to struggle in the heat, but she was a black persian so she had breathing problems already.

The dog's exercise is always changed round in warm weather to allow for both taking advantage of the coolest parts of the day and exercising in either shaded or windy locations to enable her to lose the heat she needs to lose after running. We also take her to a river dunking spot close to home at the end of runs so that she can have a swim or splash about if she wants (and she invariably does). GSDs are strong swimmers and she loves retrieving, so a swim to fetch her floating toy is a good game for her and then she can come home, have a rub down with a towel and then lie under a ceiling fan to chill.

If we really can't get her to the river then we put her in a Cool It cooling bandana and use a wet towel to wet her feet and legs, but we prefer to prevent her overheating in the first place.

Mama_Cat

Not sure about keeping cats cool as my two actively seek the hottest places in the house.

Flo follows the sun's passage from the back to the front of the house, changing where she sleeps depending on where the sunbeams fall.

Murphy either crawls inside the duvet or wraps himself up in the blanket on my bed, which also has the sun shining in it.

I have to keep the conservatory doors shut, or they would quite happily sleep in there all day and it gets over 40 deg! And I give them a poke every now and then, to make sure they're ok!

gettingready

just converted inches to cm to work out what size chillow would zara need....

their large one is 91cmx120cm so should be ok... £90 almost though ....:(

gettingready

chris_n_tj wrote: »

http://www.chillowuk.com/canine_cooler.html

Chillows are great for humans and animals. I share mine with TJ. They are not cheap, but they are well worth the money

Just looked at those again as my daughter offered to get one for Zara but.....

The cage I need is 54"L x 33"W
The large chillow is (36"x48")

So it is not gonna fit

CynicalScotsman

Freeze their food, or make ice pops (tuna mixed with water then frozen is their favourite)

Tuna is not a food you should be feeding dogs due to the mercury content levels.

andrew-the-cat

Simple: air conditioning. It has worked for the Americans since 1928.

Hillbilly1

CynicalScotsman wrote: »

Tuna is not a food you should be feeding dogs due to the mercury content levels.

Small amounts are not a problem.

Editor

bit OT but it's one of my bugbears. I asked my vet for details about dogs in cars. He said doesn't even have to be sunny, you have 10mins maximum for a medium to large breed. Then systems start to fail & quite often they don't come back up again, so it's very bad news indeed. So dogs left in cars-please don't. Which none of you on this thread would as you already know. What really annoys me is there is always one, at any dog show, who does this & out goes the message on the PA. And this happens at big ones too, where all the exhibitors should know better. Grrr.

Back OT. Shade, airflow, water everything that's been mentioned really. They love the sprinkler too but beware the yoof trying to run off with it. I did do a paddling pool for them one year-got into it myself to give them the idea. The lot of them looked at me as if I was insane, had a quick drink from it & then waddled off to lie under a bush.

Thanks for the obs about chickens-those are quite new to us.