Latest news with #Hill'sPetNutrition
Newsweek
5 days ago
- Health
- Newsweek
Hidden Heat Risk: Why Pets Aren't Safe Indoors This Summer
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Even indoors, the rising summer heat can pose a serious health risk to pets, veterinarians warn. As temperatures soar across the U.S. this summer, many pet owners may wrongly assume that keeping their dogs and cats inside is a guaranteed safeguard against heat-related illness. "Preventing heatstroke in dogs requires several proactive measures, since they do not sweat as humans do, but instead cool themselves through panting," Dr. Rebecca Tremble, a veterinarian at Hill's Pet Nutrition, told Newsweek. "Certain dogs are at higher risk, including those with thick coats like Siberian huskies, chow chows or golden retrievers, and flat faces such as Shih Tzus, pugs, boxers and bulldogs." Tremble added that overweight dogs, puppies, senior animals, and those with heart or breathing problems are also more vulnerable in extreme heat. While outdoor temperatures often get the most attention during heat waves, experts say indoor environments without proper cooling or ventilation can become dangerously hot too—especially for animals unable to regulate their body temperature like humans. Stock image: An English cocker spaniel enjoys air flowing from a fan on the floor while laying down. Stock image: An English cocker spaniel enjoys air flowing from a fan on the floor while laying down. Indoor Heat Hazards Indoor overheating can occur rapidly, especially during power outages or in homes without air conditioning. "To prevent heat-related issues indoors, owners should ensure their dogs have access to adequate shade and, ideally, a space with air conditioning or fans," Tremble said. "Providing cool, fresh water is crucial for hydration, especially if indoor temperatures are high." Tremble also recommended using cooling aids such as wet cloths on pulse points such as the groin or neck, or a cooling body wrap. During extreme heat, allowing pets to rest on tile floors or in basements can help regulate their body temperature. Dr. Teresa Manucy, a veterinarian at Chewy, emphasized the importance of hydration and creating a pet-friendly indoor climate. "Hydration is crucial in hot weather," she told Newsweek. "Many cats, and some dogs, are more inclined to drink from running water, so using a pet-friendly water fountain can encourage them to stay hydrated." Cooling mats filled with nontoxic, pressure-activated gel can also provide a surface that remains cool for hours, according to Manucy. Fans, she said, support evaporative cooling and help circulate air effectively inside homes. Adjusting Routines for Safety Pets also benefit from schedule changes during heat waves. "Owners should prioritize their dog's safety by adjusting routines and staying vigilant," Tremble said. She advised walking dogs during cooler parts of the day—early morning or late evening—and testing pavement temperatures to protect their paw pads. Booties can come in handy when walks on hot surfaces are unavoidable. Supervised yard time and limiting outdoor exposure are critical steps, Tremble added. Water-based play activities such as swimming or sprinklers can also provide safe alternatives to traditional walks. "If you recognize signs of heat exhaustion," Tremble said, "apply cool, wet cloths to their neck, armpits, hind legs, ears, and paw pads. "Offer cool, fresh water, but never force it, and avoid ice cubes to prevent shock." Recognizing and Responding to Warning Signs Veterinarians stress the importance of identifying early signs of overheating before it escalates to heatstroke. Symptoms may include excessive panting, glazed eyes, lethargy, drooling, vomiting, or confusion. "If your dog's temperature reaches 106 degrees Fahrenheit or they exhibit severe symptoms like vomiting or convulsions, contact your veterinarian immediately," Tremble said. Both veterinarians agree that preventing indoor heat exposure is just as important as outdoor precautions. "Keeping dogs indoors will help since shade and air conditioning keeps indoor temperatures cooler," Tremble added. "You can also start lowering their body temperature by misting them or gently pouring slightly cool or room temperature water over their head, belly, underarms, and paws. "Avoid using cold water to limit shock from sudden temperature decreases." Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@ with some details about your best friend, and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
The Star
22-07-2025
- General
- The Star
During kitten season, animal shelters in the US need all the help they can get
Strawberry, Blueberry, JoJo and Mazzy were about six weeks old when animal rescuers coaxed them out of long metal pipes in the parking lot of a storage unit company. Meatball was a single kitten living in a cold garage with a group of semi-feral adult cats. Spaghetti, Macaroni and Rigatoni, meanwhile, were just two weeks old when the good folks of LIC Feral Feeders, a cat rescue in Queens, took them in and bottle-fed them until they were strong enough to survive. Consider these cuties the face of kitten season 2025. Kitten season, typically landing during warmer months, is the time of year when most cats give birth. That produces a surge of kittens, often fragile neonates. Shelters get overwhelmed, especially when it comes to the 24-hour care and feeding of extremely young kittens. During warmer months, shelters get overwhelmed, especially when it comes to the 24-hour care and feeding of extremely young kittens. That, as a result, triggers a need for more foster homes because many of the 4,000 or so shelters in the United States don't have the time or resources for around-the-clock care, said Hannah Shaw, an animal welfare advocate known as the Kitten Lady with more than a million followers on Instagram. "We see about 1.5 million kittens entering shelters every year. And most of them will come into shelters during May and June,' she said. "Shelters need all hands on deck to help out through fostering.' Familiarity with fostering animals is high, Shaw said. The act of doing it is a different story. There's a false perception, she said, that the expense of fostering animals falls on the people who step up to do it. These days, many shelters and rescues cover the food, supplies and medical costs of fostering. "A lot of people don't foster because they think it's going to be this huge cost, but fostering actually only costs you time and love,' she said. Taking pairs Lisa Restine, a Hill's Pet Nutrition veterinarian, said people looking to adopt kittens should take pairs since cats often bond early in life. And how many cats is too many cats per household? "This is nothing serious or medical but my general rule of thumb is the number of adults in the house, like a two-to-one ratio, because you can carry one cat in each hand, so if there are two adults you can have four cats and still be sane,' she said. Square footage to avoid territory disputes is a good rule of thumb when planning for cats, Restine said. Two cats per 800 square feet (74.3sq m) then 200 square feet (15.6sq m) more for each addition should help, she said. Typically, kittens stay in their foster homes from a few weeks to a few months. Littermates, like Macaroni and Rigatoni, are much more likely to bond, Restine said. Kittens not biologically related but raised together often bond as well – like Meatball and Spaghetti. But adopters hoping to bond an adult cat with a new kitten arrival may be disappointed. "Once they're over that three- or four- month mark, it's hard to get that true bonding,' Restine said. Typically, kittens stay in their foster homes from a few weeks to a few months. While statistics are not kept on the number of kitten fosters that "fail' – when foster families decided to keep their charges – some shelters report rates as high as 90%. That's a win, despite use of the word "fail,' advocates note. Shaw sees another barrier holding people back from fostering: the notion that it requires special training or skills. That's why she has dedicated her life to educating the public, offering videos, books and research on how it works at her site Kitten rescuer and advocate Shaw says shelters need all hands on deck to help out through fostering. — Photos: MARY CONLON/AP Companies are coming on board, too. Hill's, a pet food company, runs the Hill's Food, Shelter & Love programme. It has provided more than US$300mil (RM1.27bil) in food support to over 1,000 animal shelters that support fostering in North America. "About a quarter of a million kittens, unfortunately, don't survive in our shelters every year,' Shaw said. "The shelter's going to be there to mentor and support you. So I think a lot of the fear that people have about fostering, they might find that actually it is something you totally can do. It's just scary because you haven't done it yet.' – By LEANNE ITALIE/AP
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Momentum in Pet Business: A Catalyst for CL's Growth Phase?
Colgate-Palmolive Company's CL pet care business remains a core strength and provides a competitive edge. As the pet industry gains traction, demand for high-quality products and services is rising. The advent of online purchasing has further bolstered the pet industry. Hence, CL has been making every possible effort to grab a larger share of the pet company is aggressively expanding its foothold in the pet industry by offering comprehensive pet care solutions. Colgate's pet business, commonly referred to as Hill's Pet Nutrition, remains committed to offering science-led pet nutrition solutions, focused on premium, veterinarian-led pet food. With the help of Hill's Pet Nutrition segment, the company has been a leader in specialty pet nutrition products for dogs and cats, with products marketed in more than 80 countries and territories worldwide. CL also plans to expand into the fresh pet food supplies pet foods under two labels, including Hill's Science Diet and Hill's Prescription Diet. Hill's Science Diet offers a range of products for everyday nutritional needs, whereas Hill's Prescription Diet spans a lineup of therapeutic pet foods to nutritionally aid dogs and cats in diverse stages of health. This February, Colgate has agreed to buy Care TopCo Pty Ltd, owner of the Prime100 pet food brand, to bolster its pet Hill's Pet Nutrition competes globally, selling through veterinarians as well as pet-supply and e-commerce retailers, and DTC channels. In first-quarter 2025, Hill's Pet Nutrition segment delivered sales of $1.1 billion, contributing about 23% to the overall quarterly sales. We expect the Pet Nutrition segment to register year-over-year growth of 1.3% in a nutshell, CL seeks to be a dominant player in the pet market by leveraging its Hill's Pet Nutrition division and expanding in the pet care aisle. This is likely to boost its overall revenues and aid growth. Tractor Supply Company TSCO, Chewy, Inc. CHWY and Central Garden & Pet Company CENT are the key companies competing with Colgate in the pet Supply is CL's key competitor in the pet care market. Tractor Supply has adopted a multi-channel approach, further buoyed by its Neighbor's Club loyalty program. Petsense, which is a fully-owned subsidiary of Tractor Supply and a pet specialty retailer, caters well to the needs of pet owners. TSCO has been striving to become a one-stop shop for pet owners. Pet owners can have easy access to TSCO's pet products, prescription medications and in-store services, including grooming and veterinary care. TSCO's pet business is likely to benefit from Petsense stores, the Allivet integration and the Tractor Supply Rx which operates as an e-commerce retailer for pet food and other related products, has been enhancing its presence in the pet market. CHWY has been making technology upgrades for its website and online platforms to aid online sales and be the perfect destination for pet lovers. Robust active customer growth and engagement, along with high Autoship customer loyalty, have been steadily contributing to its results. CHWY's healthcare business, which offers products and services spanning online pharmacy, telehealth, pet insurance and veterinary-led management tools, is encouraging. Central Garden & Pet has been a market leader in the pet and garden spaces, delivering innovative and trusted solutions. CENT's Pet segment consists of dog and cat supplies like treats and chews, toys, beds and containment, grooming products, waste management and training pads; supplies for aquatics, small animals, reptiles and pet birds such as toys, enclosures and habitats, bedding, food and supplements; products for equine and livestock, animal and household health and insect control products; live fish and small animals, and outdoor cushions. Central Garden & Pet has been advancing its growth strategy through innovation, e-commerce expansion and cost efficiencies across its Pet and Garden segments. Shares of Colgate have gained 2.6% year to date compared with the industry's growth of 0.7%. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research From a valuation standpoint, CL trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 24.40X compared with the industry's average of 20.77X. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research The Zacks Consensus Estimate for CL's 2025 and 2026 EPS indicates year-over-year growth of 1.4% and 7.3%, respectively. The company's EPS estimate for 2025 has been stable, while the same for 2026 has gone north in the past 30 days. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research CL stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Tractor Supply Company (TSCO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Central Garden & Pet Company (CENT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Chewy (CHWY) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Sign in to access your portfolio
NBC News
06-06-2025
- General
- NBC News
Welcome to kitten season, when animal shelters need all the help they can get
NEW YORK — Strawberry, Blueberry, JoJo and Mazzy were about 6 weeks old when animal rescuers coaxed them out of long metal pipes in the parking lot of a storage unit company. Meatball was a single kitten living in a cold garage with a group of semi-feral adult cats. Spaghetti, Macaroni and Rigatoni, meanwhile, were just 2 weeks old when the good folks of LIC Feral Feeders, a cat rescue in Queens, took them in and bottle-fed them until they were strong enough to survive. Consider these cuties the face of kitten season 2025. Kitten season, typically landing during warmer months, is the time of year when most cats give birth. That produces a surge of kittens, often fragile neonates. Shelters get overwhelmed, especially when it comes to the 24-hour care and feeding of extremely young kittens. That, as a result, triggers a need for more foster homes because many of the 4,000 or so shelters in the U.S. don't have the time or resources for around-the-clock care, said Hannah Shaw, an animal welfare advocate known as the Kitten Lady with more than a million followers on Instagram. "We see about 1.5 million kittens entering shelters every year. And most of them will come into shelters during May and June," she said. "Shelters need all hands on deck to help out through fostering." Familiarity with fostering animals is high, Shaw said. The act of doing it is a different story. There's a false perception, she said, that the expense of fostering animals falls on the people who step up to do it. These days, many shelters and rescues cover the food, supplies and medical costs of fostering. "A lot of people don't foster because they think it's going to be this huge cost, but fostering actually only costs you time and love," she said. Lisa Restine, a Hill's Pet Nutrition veterinarian, said people looking to adopt kittens should take pairs since cats often bond early in life. And how many cats is too many cats per household? "This is nothing serious or medical but my general rule of thumb is the number of adults in the house, like a 2-to-1 ratio, because you can carry one cat in each hand, so if there are two adults you can have four cats and still be sane," she said. Square footage to avoid territory disputes is a good rule of thumb when planning for cats, Restine said. Two cats per 800 square feet then 200 square feet more for each addition should help, she said. Littermates, like Macaroni and Rigatoni, are much more likely to bond, Restine said. Kittens not biologically related but raised together often bond as well — like Meatball and Spaghetti. But adopters hoping to bond an adult cat with a new kitten arrival may be disappointed. "Once they're over that 3- or 4-month mark, it's hard to get that true bonding," Restine said. Typically, kittens stay in their foster homes from a few weeks to a few months. While statistics are not kept on the number of kitten fosters that "fail" — when foster families decided to keep their charges — some shelters report rates as high as 90%. That's a win, despite use of the word "fail," advocates note. Shaw sees another barrier holding people back from fostering: the notion that it requires special training or skills. That's why she has dedicated her life to educating the public, offering videos, books and research on how it works at her site Companies are coming on board, too. Hill's, a pet food company, runs the Hill's Food, Shelter & Love program. It has provided more than $300 million in food support to over 1,000 animal shelters that support fostering in North America. "About a quarter of a million kittens, unfortunately, don't survive in our shelters every year," Shaw said. "The shelter's going to be there to mentor and support you. So I think a lot of the fear that people have about fostering, they might find that actually it is something you totally can do. It's just scary because you haven't done it yet."
05-06-2025
- General
Welcome to kitten season, when animal shelters need all the help they can get
NEW YORK -- Strawberry, Blueberry, JoJo and Mazzy were about 6 weeks old when animal rescuers coaxed them out of long metal pipes in the parking lot of a storage unit company. Meatball was a single kitten living in a cold garage with a group of semi-feral adult cats. Spaghetti, Macaroni and Rigatoni, meanwhile, were just 2 weeks old when the good folks of LIC Feral Feeders, a cat rescue in Queens, took them in and bottle-fed them until they were strong enough to survive. Consider these cuties the face of kitten season 2025. Kitten season, typically landing during warmer months, is the time of year when most cats give birth. That produces a surge of kittens, often fragile neonates. Shelters get overwhelmed, especially when it comes to the 24-hour care and feeding of extremely young kittens. That, as a result, triggers a need for more foster homes because many of the 4,000 or so shelters in the U.S. don't have the time or resources for around-the-clock care, said Hannah Shaw, an animal welfare advocate known as the Kitten Lady with more than a million followers on Instagram. 'We see about 1.5 million kittens entering shelters every year. And most of them will come into shelters during May and June,' she said. 'Shelters need all hands on deck to help out through fostering.' Familiarity with fostering animals is high, Shaw said. The act of doing it is a different story. There's a false perception, she said, that the expense of fostering animals falls on the people who step up to do it. These days, many shelters and rescues cover the food, supplies and medical costs of fostering. 'A lot of people don't foster because they think it's going to be this huge cost, but fostering actually only costs you time and love,' she said. Lisa Restine, a Hill's Pet Nutrition veterinarian, said people looking to adopt kittens should take pairs since cats often bond early in life. And how many cats is too many cats per household? 'This is nothing serious or medical but my general rule of thumb is the number of adults in the house, like a 2-to-1 ratio, because you can carry one cat in each hand, so if there are two adults you can have four cats and still be sane,' she said. Square footage to avoid territory disputes is a good rule of thumb when planning for cats, Restine said. Two cats per 800 square feet then 200 square feet more for each addition should help, she said. Littermates, like Macaroni and Rigatoni, are much more likely to bond, Restine said. Kittens not biologically related but raised together often bond as well — like Meatball and Spaghetti. But adopters hoping to bond an adult cat with a new kitten arrival may be disappointed. 'Once they're over that 3- or 4-month mark, it's hard to get that true bonding,' Restine said. Typically, kittens stay in their foster homes from a few weeks to a few months. While statistics are not kept on the number of kitten fosters that 'fail' — when foster families decided to keep their charges — some shelters report rates as high as 90%. That's a win, despite use of the word 'fail,' advocates note. Shaw sees another barrier holding people back from fostering: the notion that it requires special training or skills. That's why she has dedicated her life to educating the public, offering videos, books and research on how it works at her site Companies are coming on board, too. Hill's, a pet food company, runs the Hill's Food, Shelter & Love program. It has provided more than $300 million in food support to over 1,000 animal shelters that support fostering in North America. 'About a quarter of a million kittens, unfortunately, don't survive in our shelters every year,' Shaw said. 'The shelter's going to be there to mentor and support you. So I think a lot of the fear that people have about fostering, they might find that actually it is something you totally can do. It's just scary because you haven't done it yet.'
