Doctor Michelle Politano, a veterinarian with the VCA Roberts Hospital in Hanover, says with the excessive heat, concrete and asphalt can cause injuries to pets.
“If it’s a 92 degree air temperature, your concrete is probably about 115 degrees. Your asphalt temperature is about 130 degrees,” said Politano. “As you can imagine, that on bare skin will burn. We can see pretty significant burns on paw pads. I’ve even seen patients that have had burns on their skin, on their abdomens, because of laying on pavement that was hot.
Just like burns in humans, they can get infected, they’re painful. These patients need to be able to walk to get their food, get their water, go outside for the bathroom. Painful feet, it’s not a pleasant thing for anybody.”
If people find their pet’s feet look red, burned, or peeling, they should call a veterinarian to see if they need to be seen.
Vehicles are a concern as well.
On a typical 80-degree summer day, the interior temperature of a vehicle increases by 20 degrees in only 10 minutes, and reaches a deadly 109 degrees in 20 minutes. Temperatures can be as high as 120 to 140 degrees.
“They don’t have the ability to tell you that they’re overheating. They don’t have the ability to sweat, they sweat by panting. But by panting, they’re actually using a lot of muscles, which will increase their body temperature even more,” said Politano. “We saw a very sad case of heat stroke in a young dog. A dog that was outside only for about 20 minutes and became very, very ill from the heat. Dogs that have heat stroke can have organ failure, they can start to have trouble with their blood cells, it’s not something that anybody wants to see your pet for heat stroke.
We’re always glad to see pets, but for something like that, it is avoidable.”
For hot days, Dr. Politano recommends that people make sure their dogs or cats inside. If they have to go outside for extended periods of time, they should have some form of cooling.
