Snow, glorious snow!

Hi All,

Libby here.

I love snow!

I'm the happiest kitty in the world. I love perching on the windowsill of the PPAC, looking outside at the gorgeous snow fall. Look at that view in Prospect Park! There's really nothing better than it in the whole wide world. It's especially stunning before certain four legged animals run outside and turn the snow yellow.(AHEM) 

Speaking of snow, isn't it just the cutest thing in the world when a dog with short legs (have you met the Silverman's dog, Bernie?) can't manage to get their little legs over the big heaping mounds of snow. SO sweet. But, I digress.

A few weeks ago, I spoke about general cold weather warnings for your pets. But, that was before there was this giant snow storm! I now feel obligated to write an addendum to that post specifically pertinent to the snow!

So without further ado...Here's a human analogy for you to chew on. I know I write a lot of these human analogies but, you are humans. And you have pets. So it seems fitting to write something that you might actually be able to relate to so as to draw a comparison and understand the situation better than you otherwise would. Capish? 

OK. Let's say you're going for a run. And it's freezing out. And there's snow on the ground. Before you go, you'll stretch, right? Warm up. Maybe jog in place to get the muscles warmed up and ready to face the cold. If you didn't do this, you'd exit your house and likely have a massive shock to your system. Your muscles would tense up and you'd be a lot more prone to injury.

Now, imagine you have four legs. And fur. And live in an apartment in New York which means you probably don't have tons of space to run around in. Which makes 'warming up' slightly more challenging for a dog. And you see snow on the ground and can't WAIT to get outside so you can pee on it, and roll around in it, and run around to your little heart's content.

The point of this whole analogy deal was to say that dogs can't warm up in the same way as humans can. So, when exiting the house into frigid conditions, they're more inclined to sustain skeletal injuries because of muscles tightening in the cold. I see a lot of pets coming into the PPAC with some pretty serious injuries because they played too hard in the cold. Or, because the combination of frigid conditions and damp weather awakened pre-existing injuries. I've also seen that some pets who were adopted from shelters come in with skeletal issues that their owners hadn't even been aware of. That is until their dog plays around in the snow and gets injured! 

If you can get your pet to run around a bit indoors before leaving the house, great. If you can't however (I imagine this will be most of you!), make sure to exercise caution with your pets. Don't let them run too hard or for too long. And if you notice them looking fatigued or walking with any pain or discomfort, bring them inside! Not worth sustaining new injuries (or exacerbating old ones) just to have a roll in the snow.

Til next time,

Libby