Summer and its long, hot days are on their way. You may not think of your cats as being at risk of hyperthermia (heatstroke), but they are wearing a fur coat year round. Helping keep your cat cool on the hottest days of the year is important, especially in kittens and elderly cats.
Make Cool Spots Available
Give your cat access to rooms with cool things they can lay on. Tile floors, ceramic bathtubs, or even the back of your toilet are places that your cat can stretch out and enjoy the cool surface beneath them.
In our house, we have a sunroom connected to the house by a sliding glass door, and the metal track of the door was a favorite spot for one of our previous cats, Rhett, many years ago. His white paws were often smudgy from the grease in the sliding door track where he would sprawl for comfort on hot days.
You can make an extra cool spot in your house by freezing water in a three-quarters full water bottle (leave room for expansion as the water freezes) and wrapping a towel around it. Use this kind of like you would a heating pad in the winter. Instead, think of it as a cool buddy that your cat can cuddle up to in order to cool off. Don’t forget that this is going to be damp due to condensation, so you will need to either put it somewhere that won’t be damaged by moisture or protect the surface beneath it from moisture.
Provide Plenty of Fresh Water
Make sure your cats have plenty of water, and check the water level often. Warm weather means it evaporates more quickly, and your cats will drink it faster, too, meaning it will need to be refreshed more often than in cooler months. You can add ice cubes to the water to cool it down temporarily. Just be aware that some cats will fish out ice cubes to play with them, so monitor the bowls the first time you do that, especially if your bowl is in an area that the floor could become slippery when wet from melting ice.
Keep Out the Sun
Close curtains or blinds to prevent sun from further heating rooms in your house where your cat prefers to sleep during the day. This will also help with your air conditioning bill. This may mean less time for your cat to watch the birds and squirrels outside your window, but the birds and squirrels are probably resting in the heat of the day, too.
Southern and western exposure windows are the ones likely to heat up your house the most. Our sunroom has both south and west-facing windows, and we keep the blinds closed for most of the day in the summer to try to keep cool. In the late afternoon, opening the room’s west-facing blinds can make the temperature jump ten degrees in a few minutes, so keeping that sun out makes a big difference.
Use Fans to Maximize Circulation
Point a fan where your cat can enjoy the breeze it creates. A fan helps humans cool off by evaporating sweat from your skin, and cats don’t sweat all over the way that humans do, only on their paw pads. That means that a fan isn’t quite as efficient for helping cool your cat as it is to cool you, but moving air around your cat that is cooler than her body temperature still helps to draw heat away. If your cat is willing to let you wet her down with a damp washcloth, this effect works even better.
Don’t forget that some fans are easier to tip over than others. If your cat is rambunctious or has climbing tendencies, a fan that sits on the floor is a safer choice than one on a tall pedestal that has a higher center of gravity and could be prone to toppling. Of course, always make sure the fan has a grill over it so that a cat can’t get close to turning blades.
Save Strenuous Exercise for the Cooler Hours
You probably go out for your daily jog in the early morning to avoid the sizzling summer heat, and it’s no different for your cat. Don’t encourage strenuous play in the heat of the day. Playtime is important, and it’s great bonding between cat and human, but it can wait until after the house cools down. Or set your alarm a little early in the morning and have extra play time then.
You may regularly play with your cat until he is panting, but panting is also a sign of heat stress.
Don’t push your cat’s exercise when it’s hot so that you can’t tell one from the other. And if your cat begins to act unusual after summer exercise, with rapid pulse and breathing, redness in his tongue and mouth, lethargy, or if kitty is stumbling after a case of the midday zoomies, don’t assume he’ll be fine. Heat exhaustion signs like those need prompt veterinary followup.
References and further reading:
Heat Stroke in Cats, Pet MD.
How to Keep Your Pets Safe in the Summer Heat, American Humane Association
Creative commons images courtesy flickr/nauright and flickr/barbourians
We have air conditioning here and my human isn’t afraid (of the bills) to use it! Although she does prefer it warm. But she is going to try to keep it cooler this year for us kitties.
Great tips. We like to lay right next to the cold air blowing thing when it’s on. Though the mom is kinda stingey about using it.
One of my all-time favorite pictures is of Angel Tara lying on the floor in front of “her” small desk fan, straddling both sides with her legs as it rotated back and forth LOL How I only wish I had video of that moment.
Our cats love laying on the tile floor in the bathroom and the kitchen.
our cats could easily go into the basement which is usually 10 degrees cooler than the main part of the house. They even have a sofa to sleep on and carpet but noo.. they prefer to hang out in the sun and melt..
I am in Australia and it’s REALLY hot at the moment. However, my two boys will NOT stay indoors where I have fans and air con going full bore. Nope. All I can do is make sure there is water and shade out there and hope they come to their senses soon!
Great tips! Being in Southern California, we can certainly put some of these tips to use.
Those were great and we love being cool cats!
Great tips and for some of us, not a moment too soon! Thank you!
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sew burd view iz blocked ….:)
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Those are great tips. It is easy to forget cats are extra hot with those fur coats.
These are great tips! Lexy loves to sit in front of the air conditioner in the summer.
Excellent ideas! We have the same sun exposure, so we totally know how hot it can get. Our windows are closed and shades pulled by about 10 a.m. during our never-ending summer! We don’t mind–we’d rather nap anyway.
Great tips. As the temperature fell down to 11C / 52 F since Monday, we don’t have to worry yet… Purrs
Excellent tips one that that blows mom’s brain is sometimes in warm weather I will burrow under the covers…but I don’t do it in the cold weather
I march to the beat of my own drum
Hugs madi your bfff
The weather is even warming up here in Michigan! These are great ideas. Manna enjoys having ice cubes placed in her water when it is hot. She also likes to lay on the cool tile floor. 🙂
Excellent post and good reminder for all pet parents. XOCK, lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo
Great tips! Living in Florida, like you guys do, tile floors are a necessity! Our mom is generous with the air conditioning to help keep us cool.
Great tips! Before the peeps moved here and had central a/c, TW used to put a layer of cold water in the tub for Chizzy and then Nicky to lay in. She also used wet washcloths on their paw pads.
I try to keep my babies thru had years from bring too warm. Everyone loved putting their face in the cold blowy thing. ❤️
These are some great ideas. The weather is getting warmer here in Indiana.
I agree these are great tips and I have done most of these before I read this. My family thought I was spoiling her. My cat has her own bedroom with a human bed to sleep in with a light curtain so she can see out and block the heat. I have to get her a new fan this year
My cat just lays in the sink.