cats and the heat

Sorry if this has already been discussed. I tried searching the forums, but never have much luck with the search feature.

We don't have central air in our apartment, and there's no way for us to install window units. We're only here for another two weeks, but in the meantime, we're a little worried about our cats. They seem mostly alright with the heat so far, but I'd like to cut off any problems before they start.

What are some tricks for helping cats beat the heat? One is a DMH, and the other is a DSH. Our cats hate water, but is it alright to get them a little damp to help them keep cool?

We keep out cold, clean water, but they don't drink that much since they're on wet food.

Thanks!

I found this thread about keeping cats cool.

Oh jeez, and it wasn't even that far back.

Thanks!

Cats can tolerate heat better then dogs. If they are not panting, they are not that hot. Believe me when you have the AC go out and its 90-100 temps then you know when a cat is panting and is too hot.

If you feel they may be hot, then taking a nice damp cloth and wiping them down every few hrs would be ok.

The time the AC went out (and I had a litter of 3 month old kittens) I took the adult cats and filled up the tub with water (cool) and put them in and didn't towel them dry - just soaked them and took them out dripping wet. Did the same with the kittens but dried them off a little with a towel before turnning loose. The kittens layed right by the water bowl and would drink.

Thank goodness they were as old as they were or I would have lost some to the heat. We put a floor fan on in the living room and after they were dry they played right in front of the fan to keep cool.

Our apartment actually does get up to 90 or 95 degrees on bad days. We were supposed to have central air, but our landlord never installed it.

We've been doing occasional bathtub dunking, so I guess we'll continue with that when it gets really bad. We've got a fan right now that they can stand in front of, but they mostly ignore it.

Our DMH refuses to stop playing just because it's ridiculously hot, so he'll occasionally do a lap around the apartment and then pant for a minute or two, but as long as he relaxes it's not an issue. We'd get him a lion cut or something but we're only going to be here until the 15th.

Thanks for the advice!

Cats are more resiliant than what we give them credit for. I've taken care of feral cat colonies for many years and all of those cats are constantly out in the heat of summer. We make sure that they have shade and plenty of fresh water. I wouldn't close up the apartment as you want to keep a breeze (or fan) going.