Keeping Your Pets Safe in the Howling Heat

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The dog days of summer are here — and that can lead to a “ruff” time for our furry friends.

“I think the basic thing to remember is common sense,” Dr. Lauren Hendren, lead veterinarian at the Commonwealth Animal Hospital tells us. “If it’s hot for you, it’s even hotter for them.”

The heat can be even more menacing for certain breeds.

“If you’ve got a flat face, you are going to have more trouble with the heat,” Dr. Hendren adds. “You’re going to have a lot more susceptibility to heat stroke. Any of your short-faced breeds, bulldogs, pugs, even cats, if you’re letting them out in the yard, be careful if you’ve got the smushed face.”

Dogs like Teddy, a poodle mix, with long hair may need even more care. Luckily, Teddy has Emily Collins watching out for him.

“He was getting long,” Collins laments. “His hair was growing really fast and we were trying to wait as long as we could, because of his puppy fur, but we knew it was going to be too hot. With the weather coming up, he would be miserable.”

But the heat doesn’t only strike from above.

The high sun angle this time of year can make asphalt as much as 50° hotter than the air around it. That means when we see 80s and 90s, which are commonplace around the Queen City in the summer, that means sidewalks and roads can get as hot as 140°.

Essentially, if you wouldn’t walk barefoot on it, your dog shouldn’t, either.

Chelsea Mensah makes sure her dog, Riley, is always prepared.

“Actually, I have doggy Crocs for her when it gets really hot,” says Mensah. “She has to wear her doggy shoes if we have to go out to potty anytime. So, that really protects her paws… because they still have to go when it’s hot out and we can’t avoid the asphalt.”

The shade at Freedom Park provided plenty of respite from the heat for creatures two- and four-legged alike — but there was no hiding from the burning love Imoni Johnson-Darby has for Deuce.

“Deuce is literally my son,” Johnson-Darby gushes. “I don’t care what anybody says, this is my baby.”

“At home, I leave ice-cold cold water. I put ice in his water so it can be cold throughout the day. I also make sure to keep the fan on rotation while I’m gone, because the heat – you never know.”

The heat isn’t the only threat our slobbery simpaticos face, though.

“There are always going to be the warm-weather parasites, so things like mosquitos, fleas, ticks, all of those guys are going to be more active right now,” Dr. Hendren reminds us. “In particular, we worry about things like blue-green algae in ponds and still water sources.”

Making sure you’re up-to-date on vaccines and medications is critical to getting through the good, the bad, and the fluffy like a walk in the park.