Hot weather and outdoor animals - UGH!

Wow!  I am a native of the Pacific Northwest - I grew up playing outdoors in summers in long jeans and jackets.  I have NEVER gotten used to the St. Louis heat and humidity, and I grumble and moan all summer long in misery.

I was just noticing several other Patch blogs on children and dogs left in cars in this heat.  This is a dire and immediate emergency - if you ever see this, you literally have few minutes to save the life of the underling locked in the car.  Immediately call 911, and if needed, while waiting, do not hesitate to break a window and free the occupant.  If the occupant is a dog, make sure to contain it until help or the owner arrives - use whatever you have on hand.  A belt, a tie down strap, even a jumper cable can contain a dog and prevent it from running scared into a strange neighborhood.

Getting water to the car people is imperative.  In the case of dogs, hosing them down with cool water can help, and for those who are capable, giving a cool water enema can effectively lower body temperatures.  But be careful - you don't want to use COLD water.  One can induce reverse hypothermia in a heat stressed animal by pouring on cold water on a dog, for instance, and dropping its temperature far too below the norm, causing a different kind of medical emergency.  So be careful to only use cool water, not cold water.

So, for the short run, stay and keep cool - wow - this is impossible weather, and those of us that have backyard poultry are really "sweating" it - another story for another day!  But stay cool,

Dorene, and her Panting Poultry Peeps