Keeping a dog or cat safe in cold weather

A healthy, thick-coated dog is built for cold that would have you reaching for a second coat, and the winter worry is usually misplaced onto the temperature when the real hazards are elsewhere. Knowing which pets genuinely feel the cold, and which winter dangers do the actual harm, matters more than any thermometer reading.

Which pets actually feel it

Cold tolerance is mostly coat, size and age. A husky or a Bernese is happy in weather that a whippet, a greyhound or a small short-coated dog finds painful, and puppies, elderly dogs and thin or unwell animals lose heat fast whatever their breed. A dog that lifts its paws, shivers, slows down or wants to turn back is telling you plainly that it has had enough, and that is the signal to trust rather than a number. For the breeds that feel it, a well-fitted coat on walks is practical kit, not a costume.

Cats mostly regulate this themselves by staying in, and the main winter job with a cat is making sure it always can — a cat flap that has iced shut, or a cat shut out by accident, is how an indoor-leaning animal ends up cold and stuck.

The dangers that are not the cold

Antifreeze is the winter poison. It tastes sweet, animals lap up a spill or a drip readily, and a very small amount causes fatal kidney failure — and the early hours look like nothing much, so treatment has to start before the animal seems ill. Store it sealed, clean every spill at once, and treat any suspicion of ingestion as a same-hour emergency, not a wait-and-see. Rock salt and de-icer are the other one: gritted pavements irritate and crack paw pads, and a dog that licks the salt off its feet afterwards can make itself sick, so wipe the paws with warm water when you come in.

Then there is the cat under the bonnet. A cat looking for warmth will climb into a recently-driven engine bay and settle against the warm block, with results that are exactly as bad as they sound. In cold weather, bang on the bonnet or sound the horn before you start the car — it costs a second and it is a real and common way cats are killed and injured in winter.

Walks, ice and the dark

Frozen ponds, lakes and canals are the season's other serious risk: a dog runs onto ice that will not hold it, goes through, and cannot climb back out. Keep dogs on the lead near frozen water, and if a dog does go through, never go in after it — call for help, because the water that will not hold the dog will not hold you either. Beyond that, winter walks are mostly about being seen: it gets dark early, so a reflective harness or a light on the collar is worth having, and grit and slush hide the same broken glass and hazards the summer path does.

Warmth, food and the older animal

Give every pet a warm, draught-free bed away from the cold floor, and give outdoor-access cats a way back into somewhere heated. Working dogs burning energy in the cold may need a little more food; the housebound pet exercising less over winter often needs slightly less, so the season is a good moment to check they are not quietly gaining weight indoors. Cold stiffens arthritic joints, so an older dog or cat may move gingerly, be slower to warm up and want a softer, warmer place to lie — worth a mention to the vet if it looks like more than the usual winter creakiness.

Winter also concentrates the household hazards a pet-proofing pass catches: the festive season brings chocolate, lilies and cables, and the salt and antifreeze come out of the shed. It is the same checklist as any other season, run again for the things winter adds.