Limit pets’ time outdoors today

(Harrisburg) — Pet owners are being urged to protect their animals during the extreme cold snap.

Man’s best friends may have their own fur coats, but it doesn’t make them immune from the cold.

Joel Hersh, executive director of the Pennsylvania State Animal Response Team, says pets can get hypothermia frostbite just as easily as their human companions.

“Let’s keep those animals’ exposure to the cold at a minimum,” he says. “Let’s get them outside, walk them… let them do their toileting and then get them back in the house.”

Hersh says dogs’ ears, paws, tails and snouts are especially susceptible to frostbite.

“So the extremities,” he adds. “For the animals it’s going to be the paws, for us it’s fingers and toes.”

Signs of hypothermia include shivering, lethargy or behaviors that are unusual for your particular pet.

He says to contact a veterinarian as soon as any such symptoms appear.