How do your longhairs do in the heat?

[iloveeverykindofcat]

This is my first summer with a longhair - well, I had her last summer but her coat hadn't grown in as she was too young, plus the temperatures were lower. She has very long, dense, black fur and is insanely hyperactive. She overheated and panted in a car when we had to go to the vet for her allergy shot at the end of June. This was totally my fault - I never had a longhair before and didn't have the right equipment/carrier/aircon. She recovered fine and now has a plastic carrier with a cooling pad, a personal fan and water bottle, and most importantly I have arranged to take her for her booster next week in a properly airconditioned vehicle. It won't happen again. But I've realized I can't just assume she'll be fine in the heat like other cats I've had. Her coat is totally different.I don't know what kind of mix she is but she looks like the cats that are adapted to cold weather places. If she had her way she'd be out everyday 5am till the evening, but at present I'm enforcing inside time with the fans on during the hottest part of the afternoon, she can be out morning and evening. She protests a bit when she comes in but if I play with her a bit she soon settles down and goes to sleep so I think she is more tired in the heat, she just doesn't want to slow down. We're looking at over 30 degrees on the weekend and I'm considering keeping her in the whole time, but she will be absolutely mental and there are plenty of shady trees in our garden so I guess very early morning and the evening should be okay. How do yours do?

I just leave mine to it. He’s asleep in the shade under the patio furniture right now.

@Bitzee He's sensible! I wish she would just nap in the shade, she could be out much more then. But at 18 months she's still completely hyperactive and will want to zoom in the peak sun like a mad thing. Between the heat and her allergies she is the highest mainteance cat I've ever had. (She's great though, I love her).

I have three.

They mostly come inside in the heat of the day and sleep on the kitchen tiles. One is fairly insane and sleeps in the shade.

Everyone else is going to have a sensible cat😂

Yes another sensible cat here. She stays outside in the shade under the trees. DH has also made her an extra shaded area of the garden so she sleeps under there a lot. We'll see her in the morning, for snacks and little else until the evening when it's cooler.
Also she has regular grooms by a professional and no excess winter coat left.
I'd say she also has her pick of her wet food which is true, just not that different to other days.

Mine prefers to be outside if she can, and comes and sits on the balustrades by the front or back porch if she wants to come in. I do sometimes pick up and take her inside if I spot her near the house/in the garden when it's insanely hot even in the shade, but I leave the door open so she can go back out if she wants. She usually does go back out (usually after a snack) but not always. I've given up on understanding what is or is not comfortable for a very furry cat, so I just try to give her as much choice as I can.

Well based on this thread I think I can slack off on her a bit and allow a bit more outside time if I'm in the garden anyway (on annual leave right now) to keep an eye on her. I've put another water bowl out and she does drink more which is good. My older cat has a very slick, short coat and when she was young there was pretty much no temperature in the UK that was too hot for her. We've come out the garden and she is actually lying in the shade like a clever girl, let's hope it continues. I will keep her in at the real peak heat times but perhaps I don't need to be quite so strict. The other factor is that she's a bit scabby at the moment from her pollen allergies but they're actually getting better since her injection. It just looks a bit unfortunate as its healing because the fur come off around the scabs.

Sounds like she could do with a hair cut too? Get a groomer in - it'll help and the sooner she gets used to groomers the better.

Dcat would be furious if we tried to keep her inside. It's cooler in the shade outside in the breeze than it is inside here.

I might do that actually. It would have to be someone willing to come to the house (my God she costs me a fortune). I know you are supposed to leave the undercoat but maybe some of her layers could be thinned. She hasn't quite got the full mane and pantoloons she had in winter, at which point she was essentially spherical when sitting down despite being a thin cat. Just a circle of fur. But there's still a lot of coat there. Of course she's flighty and highly strung so will hate it, but I've just tried her on a feliway calming treat this evening so lets see if that helps. She's allergic to pollen, fish, and synthetic fabrics, so lets hope the treat doesn't have anything in it that starts her skin up again.

Yes our groomer is excellent with our cat and comes to our house. She is calm and confident and knows when the cat's had enough. It takes time but the younger you start the better.

I had black long haired, very flat faced Persians. I kept them indoors if it was very hot. But both of them were actually very sensible and didn’t lay around in the sun. The only time the heat was a problem, was on a trip to the cardiologist. It was during covid and we had to wait outside. After 40 minutes in the car. Despite air con. Magic was very hot. The vet say her in ice packs and sponger her down. She was fine but it was scary.

I do groom mine pretty much every day and they have lost a lot of winter coat.

one of mine is outside much much more than the others and she’s visibly lost winter coat.

the other two are outside a lot less and are still pretty fluffy.

@Toddlerteaplease sorry to hear that, it was scary for us too. What did the vet suggest to do with ice packs? I thought about getting some but couldn't quite envisage what to do with them in the car - not put them in the carrier surely, they'd be too cold? She's already got a cooling gel pad in there. Or did you mean, the vet put her in ice packs? I can definitely see how waiting in the car would become a problem. It was when we were stuck in traffic Winnie had started to get overheated. Its unfortunate we have to do her booster Thursday but its overdue and I had to co--ordinate a time when the vet could see us and we could use the temp controlled vehicle (its a pet taxi. I know, I'm crazy protective of my cats and they eat up all my money). I would have done it in June, but she was having a steroid shot and you can't really do a steroid and a vaccine together.

@iloveeverykindofcat she put the ice packs under the towel she was sitting on. We had a 40 minute drive home as well. So it’s a good job she did.

I had a British long hair/feral Tom cross who was very furry but it was very fine fur so I don't think he was ever too hot as long as I had him groomed regularly, unlike the breeder who was giving away the kittens cheap and was pissed off that the feral Tom got to her elegant lady 😂

Been pushing 30 today, very unusual where we are. Winnie has been curfewed since noon but to be fair she was out at 5am. She wasn't too happy, but she's way more tired than she lets on, because she'll play a bit then crash out. Which affirms my judgement that she cannot, in fact, be sensible, and would 100% be out there chasing flies insects and giving herself heatstroke.

I'm nervous about her vet appointment on Thursday, although I have everything ready and prepared to keep her cool on the car journey and thankfully it looks like the temperatures are going to drop off by then. She shouldn't actually be exposed to heat anyway, just aircon vehicle with muslin drape to the airconditioned vet office and back. Wish us luck that we get the moderate BBC.Met office forecast not the baking accuweather one.

That's exactly how I got my senior cat, an Abyssinian cross. Her mum was a pedigree champion Abyssinian. Her dad was a random cat. Breeder was seething. Mum AFAIK had no complaints.

She's beautiful, with large patches of ticking on her coat, has a lovely temperament and absolutley rock solid health. Apart from the time she dislocated her ankle, her vet record is a blank slate. She is 15 in October, still fit, active, hopping on low walls and walking round the village in the morning. Easiest cat in the world.

Two of ours have just been flopping around the house half heartedly trying to find cool spots.
One (Karl) spends all his time outside at the moment - but does seem to find shady spots.

Strictly 2 of ours (Karl and Lenny) are not long haired - but they are really quite fluffy 🤣.

I’ve got two Maine Coons. One is lying flat upstairs (which is roasting). I’m leaving her to it; she’s cool to the touch and is drinking plenty of water.

The other one who is orange, enough said wants to be outside. Like every summer even in 30 degrees. She’s mostly lying in the shade but has bouts of sunbathing on the patio. I used to worry about her getting sunburnt or heatstroke but she does seem to regulate when nobody’s watching her antics 😸

Honestly one year it was so hot I was trying to drape wet tea towels over her and the FACE she gave me could have turned me to stone 😂

I have fetched her in over the past few days and like her sister, she just lays and sleeps. Just got to leave them to it and they will be fine.

Well, yesterday was the last of the 30 degree heat we get for a while (coastal village) so thank God Winnie is loose again. Winnie indoors is like having a high needs baby that only wants me and hates naps but the baby has the exercise needs of a teenage olympic athlete. We had some supervised time in the shaded garden yesterday (our back garden is always significantly cooler than the front, something to do with the foilage and wind I guess) and actually the biggest issue isnt the heat its the grass pollen. Scratching and nibbling away.

The steroid shot has allowed the sores to heal which was the main thing, its just some scabs now and a lot of new skin. But I did not like her reaction to it at all. As well as panting she had diarrhea that evening and seemed generally unwell. Not at all sure I'd do it again, and yet if I hadn't, she'd still have open sores. Its a dilemma. She was right again within 24 hours so maybe it was...worth it? The weather seems to have taken mercy on us for her booster on Thursday anyway, so can discuss it then.

Mine are short haired, but one has an allergy that results in infected scabs, she has had to have steroid shots / creams and ABs in the past and wear a bodysuit to stop her scratching them which she hated. She has now been on a low dose steroid tablet every other day for the last 5 years and it has completely knocked it on the head, she still gets the occasional tiny scab but they heal no bother now, previously she was always getting skin infections through scratching them.

@EssentialDecluttering if you don't mind me asking, how do you get her to take the tablet and does she have to stop it around vaccine time? The upside with Winnie is that her food allergies are controllable (she's fine on James Wellbeloved turkey) and her pollen allergies are seasonal so over winter her skin clears up completely. June and July are hard though. Anicura gel works great but she hates it, and especially hates having her paws touched. She's a rescue who was severely neglected, she does trust me but still flighty.

Yeah, that's the tricky bit, nowadays I just pick her up, or go to where she is lying, open her mouth and pop them in, then hold her chin up till she has swallowed it but that is after years of doing it. I'm the only one that can do it. In the early days we tried all sorts. If I was starting with a new cat now I'd get a tablet dosing syringe which I've seen the vet use and use that. But even then they've got to not mind being picked up, fortunately ours is a very gentle girl who is happy being handled.

She doesn't stop them at vaccine time no. It is a very low dose. We never found out what she was allergic to.