There are two types of animals; warm-blooded and cold-blooded. Animals such as dogs, cats and birds are warm-blooded. Reptiles are cold-blooded. Warm-blooded animals have different ways of sweating.
Dogs, cats and mice have sweat glands on their feet. Dogs pant when they are hot because their sweat glands are not sufficient to cool down their bodies. In addition, their tongues allow the water from their bodies to evaporate and cool down their bodies.
Cats do not pant, but they lick the bottoms of their paws and their chests to cool down. The water on their fur will cool down their bodies.
Rabbits have sweat glands around their lips. Birds pant when they are hot and this will cause water to escape through their air sacs.
Water on our bodies cools us off. Pets have different parts of their body that do the cooling for them. If your dog or cat gets too hot, try dipping their paws in water. However, it may be difficult for you to do that with a cat.
Snakes and lizards will go to a shady area when they get hot and open their mouths very wide. Their skin color will get lighter. Some reptiles will burrow into cool soil.
Because warm-blooded animals lose water when they sweat, it is very important to give pets lots of drinking water, especially in the hot weather. You should always have water for your pet, even in the winter.
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