ANIMALS REQUIRE SPECIAL CARE IN COLD

People haven't been the only miserable creatures struggling through the last few days of cold, ice and sub-freezing temperatures in Southeast Missouri. Cows, horses, dogs and cats have all been dealing with the chill and slippery conditions.

Jhan White, Humane Society of Southeast Missouri shelter administrator, said the two major problems for outdoor pets in these conditions is access to fresh water and shelter.

"A lot of people think there's snow everywhere, can't they just chew on that? No," White said. "If it's an animal that stays outside all the time you need to feed them more when the weather's cold like this. They burn so much more energy just in the process of staying warm that if you feed them the same amount in weather like this you'll see they'll start to lose weight."

Some animals, especially big long-haired dogs, are comfortable in extremely cold weather. If the weather gets to the point where an owner believes it may be dangerous to leave a pet outside, White recommends moving the animal into the garage instead of the house.

"If it's a smooth-coat dog and it's not very big, once it drops down into the teens you might want to think about bringing them in," she said. "You take a dog that's used to being outside in 35 degrees and bring him in to 65, that's really going to stress him out, too.

"You might want to move him into the garage where it's in the 40s. Any time the body goes from one temperature extreme to another the immune system drops a little bit."

Even indoor dogs have to deal with specific problems associated with the cold.

"A dog can slip and fall on the ice and hurt themselves just like a person can," White said. "The ice-melt and the salt, that is extremely irritating to the pads of a dog or cat's feet. If they get out in that stuff, when you bring them in, you've got to get that stuff off their feet."

Farm animals also have to be supplied with running water, Dr. Linus Huck, a veterinarian in Fruitland, said.

"Sometimes if the water freezes over in the pasture some horses will venture out onto a pond and the ice will break and they'll fall through," he said. "The big problem is with cattle is we've got a tremendously low cattle market and a high shortage of feed. Cows that have been kept on marginal nutrition all winter, this weather is just pushing them over the edge. They require a higher energy level in this adverse weather condition."

Beef cattle and horses don't have to be brought in, regardless of how low the temperatures drop.

"They're out in the cold at 70 below," Huck said. "If they've got some shelter of some kind and proper nutrition they can stand tremendously adverse conditions."

Huck said dairy farmers are affected most by cold weather. The cows have to milked twice a day in concrete-floored areas that can be extremely slippery. Milk cows' udders are also prone to frostbite in cold weather.

The ice is also influencing the eating habits of many of the wild birds of prey in the area, World Bird Sanctuary Executive Director Walter Crawford said. As temperatures drop and the lakes begin to freeze over, bald eagles will begin moving to the Mississippi River to feed.

Last year a large number of eagles were forced to the Cape Girardeau area when the river froze farther south than it normally does.

"I think we'll see a lot more of them along the river in the next week or so," Crawford said. "As the bald eagle population continues to rise, eventually Cape Girardeau's going to have a fairly good wintering population of birds.

"I think Cape Girardeau, if it stays cool like this, will see a pretty good population in the upcoming months."