Fraser Valley vet tech says heatstroke proving deadly for pets, urges caution

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Your indoor cat might be at risk of heatstroke, if you don’t have air conditioning. It happened to one pet owner in Surrey on Sunday, when it was 35 degrees inside their home.

Shawna Smith says she and her husband didn’t realize how much their feline might be affected by the weather.

“We were trying to cool down the dog and we didn’t really think about the cat,” she said. “She’s 14 years old. She started erratically scratching things … She went in front of her litterbox and then just had diarrhea on the floor, which she never does. She always uses her litterbox.”

That’s when they looked up the symptoms of heatstroke in cats and rushed to the vet.

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“She was okay. But they were like, ‘If you had waited an hour … she might’ve not been okay,'” Smith said. “They just gave her an IV and kept her in a cool room for a couple of hours.”

Smith says it was scary because, until that moment, the cat didn’t seem bothered.

“Our laundry room is very cold and we tried to bring her in there, and she didn’t want to come. We tried to put cold towels on her and she was like, ‘No thanks.’ If she hadn’t started erratically scratching, I don’t even think we would have noticed right away.”

Smith says they had even considered going to the lake Sunday and leaving the pets at home.

“We decided not to, because it was going to be so hot. And I’m happy we didn’t, because who knows what would have happened to them when we came home.”

Smith says they booked an air-conditioned hotel room for the next two nights to keep their pets safe.

Vet tech warns of heat stroke dangers

Langley Registered Veterinary Technician Kaneycia Bush-McLean says she encountered six rabbits and three dogs that died from heat stroke in their homes during this unprecedented stretch of hot weather.

“Some of theses are pets that are just at home, in homes that maybe don’t have A/C, they’ve got the shade going, they’ve got the windows closed but it’s just not enough,” she says.

During her overnight shift from Saturday night to Sunday morning, she couldn’t believe the number of animals succumbing to the heat. Some pets died before they even made it to her clinic and others arrived in dire condition.

“We had three that were seen that were in such a severe state that unfortunately the owners opted to euthanize them,” she says.

To prevent heat stroke Bush-McLean advises not take your animals out on walks, adding even swimming in a lake is exerting energy that could eventually cause them to overheat.

If you don’t have air-conditioning try to keep them cool with things like wet or frozen towels and continually monitor their behaviour.

She worries based on what she saw over the weekend, the number of pets unable to survive the heat will only increase.

“The biggest difficulty I’m facing right now is knowing Saturday was just day one we have a whole week ahead of us and the rest of the summer,” she says.