Mary Allen
Many cats enjoy letting the warm sunshine on their fur on the car roof or balcony. But cats also reach their limits on especially summery days and when it is very hot. The consequences can be sunburn or heat stroke. The following five tips reveal how you, as a cat owner, can protect your velvet paw from it on hot summer days.
Summer with the Cat: the Right Sunscreen
What many of us did not know yet: Even cats can get sunburn in the summer when it is very hot! At first glance, it makes sense that naked cats like a sphinx can suffer from it. But why does this also affect cats with fur? On the bridge of the nose, on the ears, and on the stomach, these have less dense fur than on the rest of the body. In these areas of the body, excessive exposure to the sun can lead to inflammation of the skin. Cats with light fur or short-haired cats have a particularly high risk of sunburn.
The first signs of sunburn are reddening of the skin, increased sensitivity to pain, and severe itching. In more severe cases, nausea and painful skin wounds with blistering can also occur.
Protect your cat from sunburn by applying sunscreen with a high sun protection factor to the vulnerable parts of the body. When choosing a suitable sun cream, care should be taken to ensure that no irritating ingredients such as perfumes or allergens have been processed.
Lots of Fresh Drinking Water
On hot summer days, velvet paws need a higher amount of fresh drinking water. If your cat drinks too little, dehydration is at risk. To encourage your cat to drink when it is hot, you can use the following tricks:
- Distribute several water bowls or drinking fountains around the house or apartment.
- Change the water daily.
- Water containers in the garden encourage many people to drink outside of their own four walls.
- Every cat is happy about unsalted chicken or beef broth.
- Supplement dry food with wet food with high moisture content.
Offer Your Cat Shade in the Heat
During the summer months, dark floors and paved paths heat up strongly, so that our velvet paws can hardly walk on them. So that the floor stays pleasantly cool, you can lay out light or damp ceilings, for example. Cooling mats or a shady spot under the parasol are also suitable for cooling down.
If you have a hangover and are not outdoors, you can also open the windows at night or early in the morning and ventilate your apartment thoroughly. During the day it is advisable to darken the windows with blinds or curtains. In this way, the room temperature remains comfortable for you and your cat, even on hot summer days.
Cool Off in the Paddling Pool
Cats and water don’t always have the best relationship. However, this ratio can change quickly during summer heatwaves. Therefore, offer your cat several options to cool down when it is very hot:
Outdoor visitors can look forward to a refreshing paddling pool or a lawn sprinkler in the garden, for example. On the other hand, you can offer a pure house tiger a cool bath or a dampened towel when it is very hot.
Ice cubes are also a tasty way to cool off. To make it more interesting for your cat, hide a treat in the middle of the ice cube.
Protect Your Cat From Parasites in the Summer
Ticks and mites love summer and high temperatures. During this time, they are therefore increasingly found outside in grass and trees. These parasites can transmit dangerous infectious diseases to your cat. It is therefore very important to protect outdoor animals with the help of effective parasite protection as early as spring.
Depending on the spectrum and duration of action, you can choose between different dosage forms:
- Collars reduce the number of ticks biting. The effect usually lasts for several months.
- Spot-on is trickled into the neck of the cat so that the agent spreads over the fur of your cat.
- Tablets are given orally and cause the parasites to die off after biting.
You can also ask your veterinarian for information about the ingredients, dosage and possible side effects at any time.