Stifling heat spreads throughout West

[nevadamedic]

Story Highlights

Heat warnings posted for Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Washington
Montana, Idaho seared by triple-digit temperatures
Slight cooldown in Southwest, as Phoenix, Arizona, dips to 111

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/07/06/heat.wave.spreads.ap/index.html

This weather sucks. It actually sprinkles for about fifteen minutes today, but it was so hot that it was miserable. We are in a 5 bedroom house with no Air Conditioning. I finally broke down and bought an air conditioner for my room. It's actually not a bad little unit, it's a Sharp and it's on wheels. It even has an Ionic Air Purifier built in. It actually cooled my room down to the point where I had to turn it off because it got freezing in my room. I also bought misters for our deck and that works really well to lower the temperature.

I had to put both little dogs in the pool several times as they got to hot to even get up and move. Their tongues were completly dry as well as their noses/ It's almost like they had heat exhaustion/heat stroke. I wonder if dog's can get that?

Does anyone else have any tips or tricks to cope with the heat?

[nevadamedic]

I also just read that if you take a couple small t-shirt's, bandana's or small towel's and put it under cold water and put it in the freezer for about an hour and use one to tie around the dogs neck, that really keeps the temperature down. From what it say's you just keep switching off the frozen items all day to help keep their temperatures down.

[diuretic]

It gets hot here in summer. It's generally a dry, desert heat though which is bearable because I have ducted evaporative air conditioning - in the humidity it doesn't work so well. I have a cat and a small dog. The cat is pretty self-sufficient, she finds a cool spot or goes into the shower alcove. My dog is a naturally long, thick-haired dog so I keep her clipped right back in the hot weather. I keep her cool by bathing her. Yes dogs do suffer heat exhaustion and it can kill them. Shade, water, inactivity are good for them. A fan is also good.

Your weather is damn hot. I think the highest we got last summer was 43c which is about 109f - of course that's in the shade, stand in the sun and it's a damn sight worse. I hate it with a passion, anything over 30c is a pain.

[nevadamedic]

It gets hot here in summer. It's generally a dry, desert heat though which is bearable because I have ducted evaporative air conditioning - in the humidity it doesn't work so well. I have a cat and a small dog. The cat is pretty self-sufficient, she finds a cool spot or goes into the shower alcove. My dog is a naturally long, thick-haired dog so I keep her clipped right back in the hot weather. I keep her cool by bathing her. Yes dogs do suffer heat exhaustion and it can kill them. Shade, water, inactivity are good for them. A fan is also good.

Your weather is damn hot. I think the highest we got last summer was 43c which is about 109f - of course that's in the shade, stand in the sun and it's a damn sight worse. I hate it with a passion, anything over 30c is a pain.

The other thing im going to do is get a baby pool because the dogs are small and wont go in the big pool unless we put them in because they are scared of it. I think they will go right in and out of a baby pool.

[diuretic]

The other thing im going to do is get a baby pool because the dogs are small and wont go in the big pool unless we put them in because they are scared of it. I think they will go right in and out of a baby pool.

Good idea, I get hold of mine and just soak her with the hose in the back garden. She hates it. But it cools her off. She's a Lhasa Apso - I don't let her grow her coat out, I get her clipped back every couple of months in winter and much more frequently in summer of course.

[stephanie]

The world is ending...........





It's Summer............:coffee:

[Pale Rider]

Good idea, I get hold of mine and just soak her with the hose in the back garden. She hates it. But it cools her off. She's a Lhasa Apso - I don't let her grow her coat out, I get her clipped back every couple of months in winter and much more frequently in summer of course.

What about all the flies?

[Abbey Marie]

:)
The other thing im going to do is get a baby pool because the dogs are small and wont go in the big pool unless we put them in because they are scared of it. I think they will go right in and out of a baby pool.

That sounds like a good idea, Nevada. We have to take care of our furball friends; they depend on us.

[diuretic]

What about all the flies?

Yes, the flies. Bastards they are. The worst type are the little bush flies that fly around and crawl over your face in the outback in summer. Fortunately we don't have those big black biting buggers that are found in parts of Canada, ours are just a bloody nuisance.

I was annoyed as hell with the PETA campaign against mulesing sheep here. I've seen sheep with fly strike and it's a terrible thing. The only way to avoid it is to mules the lambs and keep the sheep (rams, ewes and wethers - usually Merinos of some type) crutched and shorn at the appropriate times.

It's winter now so the flies aren't numerous but come summer and they'll be flying around and we'll be doing the "Aussie salute".