In An Emergency, What Is The Best Way To Warm Up Freezing Kittens?

[I_Wuv_Kitties]

So usually what we do if we get kittens in with a dangerously low temperature is to wrap them in a blanket and hold them. But I was thinking, this is actually a very inefficient way to increase their temperature. Wrapping them in a blanket reflects their heat back at them and if they’re cold, that doesn’t help much. Either does holding them. Clothes get in the way and even if you put a kitten down your shirt, humans are 4 degrees colder than cats.

What about using something like a car heater? Turn the heat on in your car, and hold them close to the vent. That air is hot enough to get them to 102.

 

[Kieka]

A car heater would increase the body temperature too quickly. It should take at least 20 minutes to raise body temperature in a kitten. Too rapid increase in temperature can lead to shock and cellular damage.

When exposed to extreme cold or a body gets to cold in general the blood vessels constrict. Exposure to high heat while blood vessels are constricted won't allow the warm blood to circulate properly. It just makes that specific area warm and can cause burns since it can't be felt as well. When the body is slowly and gradually warmed the blood vessels dilate back to normal and the warmed blood can properly circulate. Additionally, by rapid warming you run the risk of cold blood getting to the brain or heart which causes shock or long term damage. Our bodies and kittens are made to survive in naturally occuring conditions. To put it simply, you have to give the body time to adjust to the changing conditions or the cure could be worse then the problem.

If it helps, think of how your eyes can adjust to growing darkness or increasing light at sunset or rise without trouble. However, if you leave a movie theater in the midday the sudden brightness blinds you. It isn't that the sun is too bright, it's that your body is used to the dark so it hurts to suddenly be bright. But if when you left the theater you walked down a gradually lightening hallway and then outside it wouldn't hurt as much. Same principal.

Wrapping in a towel or clothing, rubbing and holding close to your own body are the preferred methods of warming up kittens. The same methods and theory apply to a human who is suffering from hypothermia. The same theory also applies in the reverse if you have someone who is overheating you need to cool them slowly.