During the hot summer months, many veterinarian offices and animal hospitals are full of pets affected with health issues directly related to the rise in temperature.

It is important to consider the safety of your canine during the summer by ensuring that you provide them with of cool water and a place to rest that is outside of the heat. It is also important to be on the lookout for excessive panting, pale gums and tongue, vomiting, and diarrhea, which are all signs of overheating. If your canine shows any of these symptoms, take him to a vet immediately. In order to prevent overheating, try to save your dog’s long walks or strenuous activities for the mild evenings and early mornings.

Another summertime safety concern occurs when dogs are left in parked cars after being brought along on errand runs. Leaving dogs alone in parked cars puts them at risk for organ failure as well as death due to overheating. This because parked cars undergo a “greenhouse effect” which traps in the heat that has permeated through the car windows, resulting in a temperature much higher than what it feels like outside. This occurs even inside of cars that are parked in the shade with their windows cracked.

A study by the Animal Protection Institute revealed that a temperature of 82° can translate to a temperature of 109° inside of a vehicle. Alarmingly, at 94° weather, the temperature inside the car shoots up to 119°. Finally, at weather with temperatures 100° and above, the inside a car can reach higher than 130°.

The website MyDogIsCool.com is great resource for those concerned with canines being locked inside hot cars by negligent caretakers. MyDogIsCool.com provides informative fliers as well as temperature warming posters about this issue to display in offices or store windows. They also offer a forecasting tool that provides the temperature of specific zip codes, so you can be fully aware of the high risk areas of the day.

We would like to hear what you think about this issue. Or if there is another summer safety concern you would like to discuss, tell us about it here.