Summer Safety Tips For Your Dog

Summer Safety Tips For Your Dog

By J. E. Davidson

Our companion dogs enjoy the beautiful summer weather as much as we do, and it’s fun to have our dogs accompany us on summer outings to the lake or campground, or go on hikes with us.

The summer heat can be even more distressing to our dogs than to us, so take special care not to allow your dog to become overheated or exposed to other potential summer dangers.

Follow these tips to keep your dog safe this summer :-

Never leave your dog in a parked car for more than a minute or two.

In the summer heat, a parked car can quickly become as hot as an oven, even if you’re parked in the shade. The shade may move with the sun, and put your dog at risk of overheating.

Be sure your dog has access to plenty of fresh water and shade.

Dogs who are tethered outside, whether in your own backyard or elsewhere, need to be protected from the hot summer sun and dehydration. For dogs who are kenneled outdoors, put a tarp over one end of the enclosure to provide him a place to escape the hot sunlight.

Keep walks short.

Don’t allow your dog to overexert himself and become overheated. Walk in the grass to avoid the hot pavement which can burn his footpads. Elderly or ill dogs are especially susceptible to heat exhaustion if they get too much exercise in hot weather.

Clip your dog’s coat if it is long and heavy.

His coat can be clipped to within 1" of the skin to keep him cooler. Don’t clip any shorter than 1"; his coat protects him from sunburn. Dogs with white or light-colored coats are more susceptible to sunburn than dogs with darker coats.

Watch for signs of heat exhaustion.

The symptoms of heat exhaustion in dogs are the same as for humans: glazed eyes, confusion, unsteadiness, high body temperature, and/or vomiting, and may lead to brain damage, coma, or even death.

Lower your dog’s body temperature by placing cool, wet towels on his head and chest. Get him to a cool spot (air-conditioned if possible) and place him in front of a fan. Give him ice cubes to lick but don’t let him drink large amounts of water. If he doesn’t respond to treatment within 20 minutes, get him to a vet immediately.

Supervise your dog around water.

Some dogs really enjoy swimming, and most are natural swimmers, but they still need supervision as if they were children. If you let your dog swim in the backyard pool with you, train him how to get out by himself.

Keep BBQ and yard chemicals away from your dog.

Lighter fluid, matches, and yard and garden chemicals can make your dog seriously ill or even cause death if he ingests them. Don’t allow him to play on grass that has been chemically treated; he may lick the chemicals off his feet or fur.

Begin heart worm and flea prevention in the spring.

Heart worm is spread by mosquitoes, but don’t use pesticides designed for humans on your dog; DEET is toxic to dogs. Early flea prevention can help you avoid a major flea infestation later in the summer. Talk to your vet about heart worm and flea prevention treatment.

High Cholesterol Is Bad News

High Cholesterol Is Bad News.

Women today have an average life span that is greater than that of men.

Here is the shocking picture. Up to age 40, twenty-four times as many men as women suffer from coronary attacks.

From 40 to 50, five times as many men are hit by coronary attacks.

From 50 to 60, it is still two-to-one, but from then on it begins to even out.

This is entirely different from what it used to be, but healthy eating and good heart care might bring back this one phase of the “good old days,” when widow-making didn't proceed with a headlong rush.

As far as our public health records go, it seems that, at least for the last hundred years, American women have always lived longer than their men.

Statistics on the length of life before the year 1870 are very sparse and fragmentary, but some figures assembled in 1850 indicate that even at that time, the average life span of American women was two years longer than that of American men.

It is to this much better ratio of longevity that we confidently aim to return.

There can be no doubt that women are biologically stronger than men. In all the animal and insect worlds, the female outlives the male. But let's take the records of the last hundred years, and grant that women, biologically, have a two-year edge.
They are that much hardier than men.

The more you examine all of our mortality figures, the more you will be forced to agree that if by some measure we could help men to escape the ravages of coronary disease in the same degree that women do, we could hope to lengthen the average male life span by as much as four years.

We would surely decrease the frightful rate of widow-making that goes on in the United States. Today we are literally and actually mass-producing widows, and the rate has been creeping up every year.

The chances are that your husband's cholesterol reading will be much higher than it should be. The up-to-date doctor will do the lecturing for you, and order your husband to eat less fats.

Dr. Paul Dudley White, along with other heart specialists, has given us some thought-provoking figures:

If your husband has a high cholesterol level, along with high blood pressure, his chances of suffering a coronary attack are three times greater than they would be if “cholesterol” and blood pressure are normal.

If your husband is overweight, the likelihood of his being hit by a coronary attack is multiplied two-and-a-half times.

If a man has all three of the above handicaps, his coronary risk is fourteen times greater than normal. Think of that in the light of these three facts:

1. No man has to be overweight. He can rid himself of pounds with exercise and diet.

2. No man has to have a high cholesterol level. Heart saver eating, exercise, the avoidance of mental and emotional stress can bring it down.

3. High blood pressure can almost always be lowered with the new
wonder drugs which have been developed. Comparatively few cases of certain refractory types resist present day medication, and these soon may be brought under control.

The average, run-of-the-mill cases of high blood pressure may be checked by even more simple measures, such as a low-sodium diet and better living habits; mainly mental and emotional control.

If Mrs. America, by some magic, could get husband, aged thirty, to see his doctor once a year for a medical check-up and a cholesterol test, she would at once strike widow-making a telling blow.

If she, here and now, put heart saver eating and cooking into effect in her home, she would go a long, long way toward protecting her husband from coronary attack.

Statistics serve a very good purpose if they can shock us into taking preventive steps. According to mortality figures compiled by Dr. Norman Jolliffe, we can estimate that of the 40 million husbands now living, up to 21 million will die of heart and artery disease.

The latest statistics would indicate clearly that three-quarters of all deaths from heart disease are caused by coronary changes.

Thus, it can be calculated that at least 16 million of the deaths among husbands, in the days ahead, will be caused by the various results of atherosclerosis.

Men are the special targets for coronary disease, because women are physiologically favored in the matter of handling hard fats during their menstrual years.

In theory, this is due to the action of certain female hormones which help to regulate the cholesterol chemistry of the blood.

From fourteen until the early forties, women enjoy a measure of immunity to coronary disease, perhaps as an aid or concession to child-bearing.

This privilege is lost, however, after menopause. From then on, women are as susceptible as men.

As a matter of fact, there is statistical evidence that women are beginning to lose some of this specially privileged standing. Since 1940, female death rates from coronary disease have been creeping up, as compared to men.

Some point out that more women are working, and running into the tensions associated with business. Others stress the fact that many women are less active physically, with dozens of labor-saving gadgets to do their housework, and automobiles to take them off their feet.

Increased smoking by women has been implicated. No doubt all these factors play a part.

There is only one thing we can be sure of. Women, like men, are enjoying the fruits of the national prosperity that has been ours since the beginning of World War I.

Too, women have been eating hard fats in ever-increasing amounts. Even if we credit them with a better ability to handle hard fats, they too have to suffer when they abuse the privilege.

Female coronary and apoplexy death rates are going to continue to go up—and up—and up—until women get their cholesterol levels checked, and at the first sign of trouble, adopt healthy eating.

Video : Truth About High Cholesterol - Austin Wellness Institute