East End Veterinary Medical Centre
Seasonal Care Tips
Weather
Provide plenty of fresh drinking water at all times.
Keep your pet’s kennel well-ventilated and positioned near a well-shaded area where your pet can avoid midday sun and heat.
Avoid excessive exercise during hot weather. Over exertion can cause heat stress or stroke. Safe outdoor temperatures for pets vary by breed and size. Ask your veterinarian for a recommendation specific for your pet. Warning: If you suspect heat stress or stroke (e.g., collapse, extremely heavy panting, excessive drooling), wet your pet thoroughly with cool (not cold) water by immersion or spray your pet with a garden hose and call your veterinarian immediately.
Skin and Body
Keep your pet well-groomed. Long hair and hair mats can decrease your pet’s ability to keep cool and continue to skin disease. So regularly brush your pet and trim hair as needed.
Vaccinate your pet against infectious diseases (e.g., canine parvovirus or feline leukemia). Pets usually have more contact with other animals during warmer months and disease can spread more easily.
Parasite Prevention
Use monthly flea, tick, and heartworm preventatives. Pets should take these preventatives year round. Remember, it’s often easier and cheaper to prevent parasites than to treat them when a pet’s infested or infected. Take your pet for fecal exams for internal parasites at least yearly.
To reduce pets’ access to parasites and discourage parasite breeding, keep your yard clean of feces, dump any standing water—even in watering cans or flower pot saucers—clean up leaf litter, and trim bushes and trees.
Toxic Substances
The poisons that kill common pets, like rodent, snails, and slugs, are lethal to pets, too, if consumed. So limit your pet’s access to places where these poisons are stored in and around your home.
Lawn herbicides can also poison pets, so keep your pet out of the yard while spraying herbicides and off the grass for three days afterward. Washing pets paws thoroughly with soap and cool water before coming back inside will help remove herbicidal residue.
Motor Vehicles
The temperature inside a car can easily climb to 120 degrees when a vehicle is parked in the summer sun. NEVER leave your pet unattended in a vehicle.
Weather
Keep cats indoors and shorten exercise walks for dogs when the temperature falls. Safe outdoor temperatures for pets vary by breed and size. Ask your veterinarian for a specific recommendation for your pet.
If your pet must be outside at all, provide adequate shelter. A dog house should be no more than 3 times the dog’s size. The door should face away from the wind—usually south. And avoid blankets and straw—they can harbor fleas. Use cedar shavings for bedding instead. Provide similar shelter access to a building for outdoor cats.
Never allow your dog to walk on a lake or pond that looks frozen. The appearance of ice can be very deceiving and pets can fall through and drown.
Parasite Prevention
Continue using monthly flea, tick, and heartworm preventatives. Pets should take these preventatives year-round. Remember, it’s often easier and cheaper to prevent parasites than to treat them when a pet’s infested or infected.
Take your pet for fecal exams for internal parasites at least yearly, and keep your yard clean of feces.
Motor Vehicles and Antifreeze
When the weather cools, cats like to sleep near a warm car engine, curling up on or under the hood. So, be sure you know where your cat is and honk the horn before starting your car.
Antifreeze can be lethal. It tastes sweet to pets and contains ethylene glycol, a toxic agent. So, always clean up any antifreeze if it spills. Contact your veterinarian immediately if you suspect your pet has consumed antifreeze.
Diet, Food, and Water
Like people, outdoor pets can burn more calories in the winter. However, most indoor pets don’t need their diet adjusted for different seasons. Your veterinarian can help determine whether your pet’s diet is adequate and balanced.
To prevent dehydration, be sure your pet’s water supply doesn’t freeze. And use a non-metal water dish to keep your pet’s tongue from sticking.
Candy, especially chocolate, can make pets sick. A stomachache is the milder side effect, but chocolate poisoning—caused by theobromine, a compound found naturally in chocolate and related to caffeine—can be fatal.
Paws
Rock Salt, used to melt snow and ice, can irritate paw pads. Clean pads thoroughly after a trip outside
Uneven, icy surfaces can slash dogs’ paw pads, so keep your dog on a leash or dress him in canine booties.
Without hard surfaces to act as a natural file, dogs toenails grow longer in winter, so regularly clip your pet’s nails.
Holidays
If you have a tree-climbing cat or large dog, consider securing your holiday tree by anchoring the top of the tree to a wall using strong cord or rope. Make sure any presents accessible to pets are securely wrapped, and don’t use ribbon or raffia.
Frequently check the ground around holiday trees. Ingested pine needles can puncture pets’ intestines.
Keep all tree ornaments, yarn, ribbon, and garlands well out of pets’ reach by hanging them high on the tree. Don’t use tinsel.
Keep lit candles out of pets’ reach.
Holly, mistletoe, and poinsettia plants are poisonous when consumed. Enjoy their beauty while keeping pets safe by placing them well out of pets’ reach.
Puppies and kittens like to chew, so keep electrical cords out of reach.
When entertaining, be sure guests know these and other household rules that help keep your pet safe.
