Photo: Josh Rakower
Climate experts warn this summer could be New Zealand's hottest on record and while we consider keeping ourselves safe, we can't forget the health of our furry friends these howlidays.
For those hot summer days, senior veternarian Ian Schraa recommends not leaving your dogs in the car unless you are there as well.
"But if you do, the car should be in the shade and a window down so air can circulate."
He offers a strict warning for owners of Pekingese, pugs, bulldogs and French bulldogs.
"Those dogs can go in 10 minutes, especially if it's a hot day," he told First Up..
"Those dogs suck air anyway, they're panting on a normal basis, that's how they get rid of heat.
"If they can't get rid of heat, when the room temperature is above their body temperature, inside the car, then they can't cool down."
This is known as hyperthermia, where just being in one or two degrees above a dog's normal body temperature is where they start to struggle and overheat.
Schraa said this overheating is the most common serious problem in summer and it can happen to any dog, but is particularly tragic for the short-nosed canines.
Hot paws
Walking on hot pavements with bare feet is tough for humans - and our furry friends can also burn their paws and get ulcers.
Schraa said the main thing was to not overdo the walks and build up their paw tolerance slowly.
"When we walk a dog, often we'll have walked a kilometre and they'll have worked two because they're all over the place if they're off-lead."
"Preventing it (burns) is just building them up. It's like us, our feet harden up over summer, they're a bit soft at the start and the sand feels hot but the soles get thicker as we walk around in barefeet. It's getting them used to it but not overdoing it."
He recomends walking your dog at dusk or dawn; the times of the day when it's cooler outdoors.
Inside pets
For the pets that usually hang out inside, Schraa recomends having a fan going to circulate the air as well as leaving the windows open.
"There is a risk of cats overheating but we don't see it much. Cats are pretty independent so they can usually work it out themselves."
Putting ice in your pet's water can also help to cool them down.
Sunblock
Watch out for too much sun exposure for white or ginger pets.
"Unfortunately, skin cancer in cats is quite common on the tips of their ears and nose, especially if they're white or poorly pigmented," said Schraa.
"It's not a melanoma like in humans ... it's a sunburn initially and then it becomes cancerous and its a sore that doesn't heal itself."
Schraa said they probably do one or two operations a month on cats' sunburned skin.
"The best thing is prevention. We can't do the slip, slop, slap like for humans but we can put sunblock on and there are animal-specific ones ... on their ears, round their nose and those white dogs, if they're a sunbather, on their bellies."
Bone Appetit!
Schraa said his practice saw a fair few cases of gastrointestinal upsets in the days around Christmas and New Year.
"A little bit of human food is fine but don't go overboard.
"Avoid the the ham bones -we sometimes forget that ham is a salted meat and so you give a dog a ham bone and they'll be ingesting a lot of salt, so they can get a little bit sick with that."
Watch out for toxic algae
While you're out enjoying the sunshine with your pets this summer, Schraa warns owners to watch out for toxic algae in stagnant water.
"That's a real problem these days in New Zealand... That happens where there's stagnant water and the water evaporates and the concentration of the algae increases and the dog laps it up."
"It's very fast, they can die within thirty minutes. So you should have your dog on a lead."
