As winter approaches, humans do all necessary measures to protect themselves and their loved ones from the seasons’ dangerous health effects. Hypothermia and frostbite pose significant risks to dogs in winter. Every pet owner should follow winter safety tips for dogs.
Pets are one of the most loving creatures in the world for humans. Exposure of the pets to dry, cold air, snow, and rain can lead your pets to flake skin, chapped paws and lips, and severe discomfort.
Besides these, the strong season can lead your pet to specific dangerous health issues. We are listing here the top winter safety tips for dogs every pet owner should follow to protect their canine from winter’s adverse health.
Winter safety tips for dogs:
Be prepared for winter:
Winter began with extreme in many continents around the globe. The very first step as a pet owner you should prepare yourself for medical emergencies. Like humans, make an emergency plan for your pet.
Make an emergency kit and make sure to keep important medicines if your pet is on certain medication, food, water for at least 2 to 4 weeks.
Most likely, you will never need it, but if you need any of them, you will be thankful you planned and be prepared before.
Avoid Sudden entering into the dry heat:
After an outside walk in the winter, sudden entering to your dry heated room is not the same for your dogs and vise versa. It can cause flaking and itchy skin. Immediately Dry your pet gently with a towel remove the raindrops or snowballs.
Dry and wipe the paws:
In winter walks, pet paws can pick up salt, snow, antifreeze, and de-icers from the environment. So after entering the home, Be sure to wipe off and dry your dog’s paws.
Especially concentrate on his feet and dry gently in between the toes. Gently check paw pads for cracks or redness between the toes.
The best idea is that after the walk, wash and dry your pet’s feet with warm water to remove snow and other chemicals.
Use of petroleum jell in the paw pads:
Before taking your pet outside, make sure to use petroleum jelly into the dog’s paw pads. This will protect your pet paws from salt and other chemicals.
Booties will also prevent the pet paws from the sand and salt from getting lodged between bare toes.
Limit the Bathing schedule:
In winter, limit the bathing schedule of your pet and Bathe them as little as possible during winter. Regular bathing can remove essential body oils and leads to flaky skin and skin dryness.
Make sure proper grooming and use Washing too often can remove essential oils and increase the chance of developing dry, flaky skin.
Use vet recommends shampoo and moisturizing for your pet.
Avoid Trimming Hairs:
Animal coats and hairs are the natural guards against the cold as winter approaches do not trim your dog’s coat. The long and wide the coat, the less will be the winter effect.
Here remember that for long-haired dogs, just trim the hair to minimize the size and never trim completely. Proper grooming is important.
Give food more than usually:
In cold seasons Pets usually burn more energy and required more energy to keep the body temperature normal. Offer more healthy food and avoid toxic foods and keep them hydrated.
Provide proper shelter:
Providing proper and especially winter manage shelter is most important. Provide the best shelter and keep it inside the house. If your pets live outdoors primarily, bring them indoors.
Provide proper bedding, and don’t let him outside. Letting outdoors is dangerous, and you can even lose your pet.
Provide them a dry and comfortable shelter and small enough to conserve body heat.
The floor of the shelter should be covered with a dog’s bed or cedar shavings, and the door will be turning at the outside of the wind.
It is best to Use plastic food and water dishes instead of iron and other metals.
Use Gentle leader or leash:
A survey gives statistics that More pets become lost in the winter than in any other season. The reason is that snowfall can disguise recognizable scents that normally help dogs to find their way home.
Make sure the use of gentle leader or leash when going outside—leashed your dog on a walk to reduce the risk of loss. Also Use the special microchipped collars to track your dog.
Avoid Antifreeze spills:
Usually, Antifreeze contains ethylene glycol and sweet to taste and attracts cats and dogs easily. But remember, the Antifreeze spills are poisonous and extremely dangerous and can lead your pet to death.
Be sure to clean up any antifreeze that spills in your car, garage, and other places.
Provide sweater, shoes and coats:
If you and your dog like being outdoors and you will be outside for a long time, then make sure you the outfitting your pup with a dog sweater, dogs shoes and coat to keep it warm.
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