Dollars and Pets: Don’t leave pets in parked cars, even for a few minutes
As the weather heats up, you may be tempted to take your pet along for the ride when you run a quick errand around town, but parking in a shady spot with the windows cracked won’t keep them from overheating.
Leaving your pet in your car with the windows cracked, even in 70 degree weather, can lead to deadly consequences. A Stanford study found that a car’s interior can heat up by an average of 40 degrees within an hour, regardless of ambient temperature, and 80 percent of the temperature rise occurs within the first half hour.
Cracking a window does virtually nothing to keep the temperatures from rising inside a car. Under these conditions, animals can suffer and die from heatstroke in just 15 minutes.
Dogs are especially vulnerable to heat-related illness because they can only cool off by panting and through the pads in their feet. A dog’s normal body temperature is between 101 to 102½ degrees — heat exhaustion occurs when their temperature rises between 103 to 106 degrees, and heat stroke, which can be fatal, can occur when their temperature spikes above 106 degrees.
While all dog breeds are susceptible to heat-related illness, brachycephalic breeds — those with short snouts such as pugs, boxers and bulldogs — are at greater risk and could suffer negative effects faster than other breeds.
For these breeds, heat stroke can occur when outside temperatures or humidity are only slightly elevated.
Signs of heat exhaustion
- Rapid panting
- Excessive drooling
- Rapid heart rate
- Warm to the touch
- Red or purple gums or tongue
- Glazed eyes
- Vomiting
- Bloody stool
- Seizures
- Legs collapsing or staggering
- Disorientation
A dog can only withstand a high body temperature for a very short period of time before
suffering nerve damage, heart problems, liver damage, brain damage and even death. Anyone who sees a dog in distress in a hot car should call animal control, the police or 911 immediately, and stay on the scene until help arrives.
If you can’t locate the owner and authorities have been called, you legally can break into the car to save the animal.
Heat exhaustion and strokes are so easily preventable. Please keep your dog at home where it is safe and cool and they have access to fresh water. By following these simple precautions, you can keep your pets safe through the hot weather months.
Nicole Forsyth is president and CEO of RedRover, an organization that focuses on bringing animals out of crisis and strengthening the human-animal bond through emergency sheltering, disaster relief services, financial assistance and education. She writes Dollars and Pets for the Bay Area News Group. Send questions to petpalconnection@bayareanewsgroup.com.