5 tips to keep your pets safe when temperatures plummet

With temperatures expected to plummet, Macon-Bibb County Animal Welfare is offering up some winter weather pet safety tips.

Here are 5 tips:

1. If it’s too cold for you, it’s probably too cold for your pet to be outside. Keep pets indoors.

2. If your pet cannot come inside, provide an outside shelter that is off the ground with hay or shavings and facing away from the wind.

3. Don’t leave pets alone in vehicles during cold weather. Vehicles can act as refrigerators that hold in cold, which could cause animals to freeze to death.

4. Wash and dry your pet’s paws and stomach after walks in the rain, snow or ice.

5. Feeding a pet a little more in the winter provides extra calories to burn energy to keep warm, and fresh water should always be available to pets.

For more tips on pet weather safety, check out what AC Pup has to say and find additional tips here.

This story was originally published December 7, 2017 at 4:30 PM with the headline "5 tips to keep your pets safe when temperatures plummet."