How to keep your cat safe in summer

Although cats are less sensitive to the heat than dogs and spend most of their time indoors, there are a number of precautions you should take with your cat in summer to maintain its health and well-being.

Cat care in summer

Hydration

The first point to consider is hydration. By definition, our cats drink very little water, which can lead to various health problems, the most prevalent being chronic kidney disease. It is therefore very important to encourage our cats to drink water, especially during the summer, to prevent them from becoming dehydrated. We can use various strategies to do this:

  1. Have several containers of water scattered around the house;
  2. Put ice cubes in the drinking fountains to keep the water cool;
  3. Change the water more often than in winter;
  4. Acquire water fountains – cats like to drink running water;
  5. Increase the amount and/or frequency of wet food, which also helps to increase water consumption – be aware that we must adjust the amount of dry food to prevent cats from gaining weight.

Watch out for sun exposure

Even with the heat in our homes, cats love to be out in the sun for long periods of time. Although this exposure to the sun is beneficial for feline well-being, it can lead to burns in the hairless areas, such as the nose, ears and lip area. These burns can lead to the appearance of sores that we should be very attentive to – if they don’t heal, they are grounds for a consultation with your vet, as a tumour known as squamous cell carcinoma may be developing, which can be quite aggressive. For this particular situation, the ideal would be for us to be able to apply sunscreen to our cats, but this is not advisable as they will lick the areas and clean themselves, ingesting the sunscreen, which can lead to the development of gastritis and gastroenteritis. It’s therefore best to try to restrict access to the sun, as long as this doesn’t cause your cat additional stress.

Wetting their paws

Another important aspect is that cats don’t pant to lose heat like dogs do – if you see your cat panting at home, you should go to the vet urgently. Cats use their pads to lose heat, which is why you can sometimes see patches of their paws on the floor. In this sense, wetting their paws can be one of the things you should do with your cat during the summer, as long as it’s not a stress factor, given that most cats don’t like water.

A fresh environment

In addition to the precautions already mentioned, it’s also important to be aware of open windows – cats love to look outside, and if the window is open there’s a great risk of them falling. A good practice in caring for your cat during the summer is to use mosquito nets, which allow us to open the windows to cool off the house, but prevent accidents.

Deworming

Summer is the insect season par excellence, and if we humans suffer a lot from mosquitoes, even at home, why should we assume that our cats don’t too? Well, keeping your cat dewormed regularly and correctly is also one of the things you should take care of during the summer – deworming should be appropriate to the age and lifestyle of the cat in question, so you should ask your vet about the options available and which are best suited to each case.

To summarise, even if it doesn’t seem like it, cats suffer a lot in the heat, so we need to take care of our cats in the summer to keep them happy and healthy. In case of doubt, contact your veterinary doctor.

 


Vet.Point – Oeiras Veterinary Clinic
Emergency 24h | 927896112 – 211918923 |
geral@vetpoint-ivl.com

Rua Manuela Couto Viana 5, 2780-371 Oeiras

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