KALISPELL - Unhealthy smoke in the air can impact your immune system in a big way, that’s the same for your cats and dogs running around outside.
Humane Society of Northwest Montana Executive Director Stacie DaBolt said cats and dogs react to unhealthy smoke the same way as humans.
Heavy exercise or even just long exposure outside during poor air quality conditions can be concerning for your animals.
“Just like anything else, animals are a lot like people when it comes to situations like this, so even here our own staff, we have a rule when it’s this smoky that the dogs are not out for a long period of time and anybody that has medical conditions, or senior, older dogs, don’t go out at all,” said DaBolt.
Dabolt said the smoke can really impact immunocompromised pets. They should be kept inside until the smoke begins to clear.
“A perfect example is brachycephalic dogs or stem-nosed dogs that have breathing issues anyway, I mean I have a few friends that I’ve told already, like a pomeranian, keep their exercise limited because they already compromise breathing and then you put smoke on top of it, it just exasperates those conditions.”
