Hypothermia (Dangerously Low Body Temperature)

When the body can no longer stay warm

A cat's core temperature normally sits a little above our own. Hypothermia sets in when that core falls below the safe range, either because the cat is losing heat faster than it can make it — cold, wet, exposure — or because illness, shock or anaesthesia has knocked out its ability to generate heat. As the body cools, every system slows down to conserve energy.

Reading the stages

Early on a cat shivers hard and feels cold at the extremities. As cooling deepens the shivering stops — a dangerous sign, not a reassuring one — and the cat becomes weak, floppy and dull, with slow breathing, a slow heart and pale gums. Severe hypothermia brings collapse and unresponsiveness. The danger is that the colder a cat gets, the less able it is to warm itself, so the problem accelerates.

The most vulnerable

Newborn kittens cannot regulate their own temperature at all and chill with frightening speed away from their mother or a heat source; chilling is a major cause of fading-kitten syndrome. Elderly, thin, hairless and unwell cats, and any cat caught out in winter or soaked through, are also at high risk.

Warm gently, and get help

First aid is to move the cat somewhere warm, dry it, and wrap it with blankets and covered warm water bottles — never anything hot against the skin, and never a fast blast of heat, which can do harm. Then get to a vet, who can rewarm under monitoring, give warmed fluids and treat the underlying cause. Handled promptly and gently, many cats recover well.