The importance of keeping your pets warm all winter

ZANESVILLE, Ohio- As the cold weather continues this week, pet owners should take extra precautionary measures to insure their pets safety.

Often times as the temperatures get in the single digits, pet owners of outdoor animals can forget the severity of keeping those outdoor pets warm.

“In the winter we always recommend if at all possible, you bring your pet inside. We know sometimes that isn’t possible but we just want to make sure that you’re doing absolutely everything you can. One of the biggest mistakes is that people like to use hay or blankets for their pets and that actually holds moisture so it makes your pet colder. We recommend using straw,” said Charity Stevens, Assistant Director of the Zanesville Dog Shelter Society.

If you’re a pet owner, Stevens encourages you to use the following tips to help keep your outdoor cats and dogs warm all season.

“It’s very possible when it’s this cold out if there’s other issues going on, if they’re already not feeling well or if their older pets they could have like arthritis and it could be hard for them to get up and move around. Since they’re not producing enough energy to burn heat, make sure you’re feeding them a little extra in the winter to help keep them warm,” said Stevens.

Be sure to use these tips to help you keep your pets safe and warm all winter. If you’d like to help other pets here in the Zanesville area, On January 6 Brian’s Place will host a comedy show that will help benefit the animal shelter. Tickets can be purchased for $20.00 by contacting The Animal Shelter at 740-452-1077.