Dog Days of Summer: Summertime Health Hazards

Keeping your dog healthy is a year-round task that involves regular checkups, exercise, vaccinations, proper nutrition, and a hearty dose of love. When summer rolls around, your dog faces a variety of seasonal hazards from annoying fleas to the risk of heatstroke.

Fleas and other pests proliferate during the warm summer months because their eggs mature faster. Be on the lookout for fleas and ticks, mosquitoes, and intestinal parasites. Consider testing your pet for heartworms, roundworms, tapeworms, hookworms, and whipworms or ask your vet for assistance in choosing a preventative product that offers protection from these pests.

If you notice a change of appetite, change in your pet's coat, diarrhea, weight loss, coughing, scooting, or licking of the anal area, consult with your veterinarian. Your dog could have intestinal parasites.

Watch the water. Dogs can and do drown in family swimming pools. Invest in a water alarm or make sure that your pool is fenced and gated so that neither your children nor your pet can get in. Rivers, lakes, and oceans pose drowning risks too. Lifejackets are available for dogs of all sizes. Do not allow your dog to swim in rough, cold, fast-flowing, or turbulent water. When at the beach provide plenty of fresh drinking water as saltwater will make him sick.

With summer come lawn care, automobile maintenance chores, and pool cleaning. Each of these tasks relies on substances that can be deadly or toxic to your pet. Keep fertilizer, anti-freeze, chlorine, and other chemicals and pesticides safely out of reach. Clean up pools of anti-freeze that have leaked out of your car.

Heatstroke is dangerous yet easily preventable. Dogs at the greatest risk include puppies, overweight dogs, elderly dogs, heavy-coated dogs, and dogs with short, wide heads like pugs. Keep your pet indoors during the hottest part of the day. Exercise with him in the cool morning or evening hours, provide fresh water, and plenty of breaks. Never leave your dog unattended in a car, even if parked in the shade. The inside temperatures of parked cars can soar to deadly temperatures.

Signs of heatstroke include brick-red gums, excessive panting, drooling or frothing, rapid pulse, glassy eyes, high temperature (over 104 degrees Fahrenheit), weakness, and unsteadiness. Diarrhea, vomiting, and seizures are more severe symptoms. If you suspect heatstroke, cool your dog with water immediately and get him to the veterinarian right away.

The Fourth of July with its thunderous fireworks has caused many dogs to jump through windows and over fences with fear. Make sure your dog has tags and is safely contained during these trying times.

Summer is a fun time to enjoy your pets and the great outdoors. Keep them safe and prevent these hazards from rearing their ugly heads.