7 Essentials: How to Keep a Cat Cool on Hot Summer Days

Here are 7 essential quick tips on how to keep your cat cool and safe on hot summer days. Please read and share with fellow cat owners!

1. Keep your cat calm on a hot day
2. Cool down places where a cat sits
3. Keep your cat indoors
4. Allow your cat to cool places
5. Cool a cat down
6. Keep the cat hydrated
7. Check for a heat stroke

1. Keep your cat calm on a hot day

Avoid active playing, give a preference to a relaxed atmosphere. If a cat is running and jumping when it is hot, she will get exhausted and dehydrated.

2. Cool down places where a cat sits

Shadow the windows so the air does not heat up. Switch on an air-conditioner, if you are around. Fill in a hot water bottle with cold water so a cat can sit near or on it. Reduce heat from the spot a cat likes to sit on – put a towel or a light fabric over the spot.

3. Keep your cat indoors

Don’t let your cat roam in the yard on a hot day. The outside air can be so hot that even the shadowed spots will not help and the cat may get a heat stroke.

If your cat has to be outdoor or you have feral cats visiting, organise a cool shelter outside – put a box so the sun does not shine straight into it. Put plenty of water.

If you have a shed, check that the door is either tightly closed and locked and there are no cats inside, or, if you have to keep the door opened, make sure it is in a fixed position and will not accidentally close – small closed areas overheat very quickly.

4. Allow your cat to cool places

If you have tiles in bathroom, laundry, kitchen or other rooms, let the cat access the rooms. Tiles will help cats to chill.

5. How to cool a cat down

Cool your cat on a hot day. Use wet hands and wet her head between ears, cheeks, the back and the body. The cat can start grooming itself after that, which is fine – evaporating saliva gives more cooling. (Remove the excess of fur with wet hands to help the cat with grooming.)

Places on a cat that are the warmest – cool them down – belly, pads of paws, cheeks, outside of the ears, under the chin.

If a cat does not like being wet, dampen a towel or a cloth and gently stroke the cat from the head along the back. Don’t overdo. If the cat does not like it, respect your cat and let her go.

Brush the cat to remove an excess of fur. Remove mats as they keep heat.

Switch on a fan or an air-conditioning. Orientate it so the air does not go straight onto the cat. Don’t make it too cold or too fast and noisy.

6. Keep the cat hydrated

Put several bowls with water in different places. Put ice cubes into water, it will keep it cool during a hot day.

7. Check for a heat stroke

If a cat is left in a hot environment, a poor ventilated space, a car (even if windows are opened a bit), the cat can easily overheat and a heat stroke can happen. Heart stroke is a result of a body’s temperature regulation system failure due to a cat being under very hot temperatures.

Check for heat stroke symptoms – apathy, extreme distress, vomiting, drooling, shortness of breath, glazed eyes, sticking the tongue out, movement disorder. Heart stroke can lead to coma and death.

If you notice the symptoms, cool the cat down – ensure a constant flow of cool air, cool down with a wet towel (especially the head, to protect from a brain damage) – don’t block the cat’s nose and mouth. Get the cat to the veterinary clinic.

Tagged care, danger, essentials, health, heat, heatstroke, hot, summer, tips, weather