The importance of protecting pets from freezing temperatures in Spain

After a start to the winter with warmer than normal temperatures in December, which has been the warmest in its monthly series since it began in 1961, the cold seems to have settled definitively in Spain with a general drop in thermometers.

For the next few days, according to the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet), it is expected that the drop in temperatures that occurred on Monday 23 January will continue with little change, and that widespread frost will continue in the interior of the Peninsula except in the southwest.

Low temperatures can pose a risk to the health of pets which, depending on their breed and size, may have a different threshold of tolerance to cold, as recalled by the Directorate General for Animal Rights.

In this sense, they shared a climate safety scale developed by veterinarians at Tufts University, in relation to the minimum temperature that dogs can withstand taking into account their size and breed.

According to the researchers, temperatures between -1°C and 4°C can pose “a risk” for some breeds of small and medium-sized dogs. For larger dogs, the limit is between -4°C and 1°C.

But the cold is not the only danger that threatens the health of pets in winter but everything that surrounds the treatment of streets and pavements against possible frost (such as those that are occurring in many cities in Spain these days).

In this regard, the British Veterinary Association (BVA) recently pointed out the danger of cats ingesting antifreeze and recommended, for dogs, that owners should ensure that their pets’ pads are cleaned after walks to remove debris from ice and salt that can be harmful.