Pets can get sunburned. They can develop skin cancer. And the veterinary world is rapidly catching up to that fact with a new generation of products, prescription treatments, and protective gear that’s turning animal sun care into a serious and fast-growing industry. We can’t do what our grandparents did: just let the animals be animals, bring them indoors at night, and put them back out in the morning. We have more responsibility for them now, and we need to own up to it to protect their health.

More Than Just a Hot Day Problem

When we think about protecting our animals in summer, heat stroke usually comes to mind first. That’s important, no question. But sunburn is its own problem, and it gets a lot less attention. I know I never thought any of our dogs would be at risk of sunburn, and I am sure most of you haven’t given it much thought either.

Medically, sunburn in animals is called solar dermatitis. It’s caused by ultraviolet radiation, the same UV rays that damage human skin. UV radiation comes in two main forms. UVA causes skin aging and is linked to cancer. UVB causes the red, painful burning we associate with a bad day at the beach. Animals are exposed to both.

Fur does provide some protection. But it doesn’t cover everything, and it doesn’t help every animal equally. Pets with light-colored or white fur, thin coats, pink skin, or no hair at all are at the highest risk. That includes Dalmatians, bull terriers, white cats, and hairless breeds like the Sphynx cat. But it also includes your regular everyday golden retriever who loves to roll on his back in the sun, exposing his belly, his groin, and the underside of his tail.

The areas most likely to burn are the ones you’d expect: the nose, the ear tips, the eyelids, and the belly. Cats with white ears are especially vulnerable. Board-certified veterinary dermatologist Dr. Jill Abraham has noted that squamous cell carcinomas show up on the ear tips of cats, on their noses, and even on their eyelids. These aren’t minor skin irritations. They’re cancers.

What Sunburn Looks Like in a Pet

Early sunburn in animals shows up as reddened, warm, or sensitive skin. You might notice peeling, flaking, or your pet flinching when you touch a certain spot. A more serious burn can blister and scab. And if a pet is burned repeatedly over time, the risk of skin cancer goes up significantly.
Those cancers can include squamous cell carcinoma, hemangiosarcoma, and malignant melanoma. Early detection matters a great deal. A veterinarian can examine unusual spots, non-healing sores, or skin that looks crusty and discolored. Catching skin cancer early gives a pet a much better chance at a good outcome.

Something else worth knowing: even indoor cats aren’t completely safe. If your cat sunbathes next to a sunny window, it’s still soaking up UVA rays right through the glass.

A Growing Industry Responds

The veterinary dermatology market is booming. In 2024, the global market for veterinary dermatology drugs was valued between $10.8 billion and $17.4 billion, depending on the research firm, with projections showing it reaching as high as $29.5 billion by 2030. That kind of growth reflects how seriously the field is now taking skin health in animals.

The prescription segment leads that market. Veterinarians are prescribing more dermatological medications than ever before, including treatments for conditions worsened by sun exposure. In September 2024, the FDA approved Zenrelia, a new drug for the control of itching connected to allergic dermatitis in dogs. And in 2024, Zoetis launched a new dermatological line targeting allergic dermatitis, using bioactive ingredients backed by clinical trials.

Beyond prescription drugs, the over-the-counter segment is growing fast too, at a projected rate of about 9.7% annually through 2030. In North America alone, the pet skin care products market was valued at $2.1 billion in 2024. Protective accessories are a growing part of that picture.

UV-blocking shirts and bodysuits for dogs, with UPF 50+ ratings, are now widely available alongside hats, visors, and sun goggles specifically designed for pets. Published research in the journal Veterinary Dermatology examined UV protection for free-range pigs and found that proper shade cloth materials could meaningfully reduce harmful UV exposure in animals with light-colored skin.

The Sunscreen Problem

Here’s where things get complicated, and where it’s really important to pay attention. You cannot just grab your own sunscreen and rub it on your dog or cat. Some ingredients in human sunscreens are toxic to pets.

The two biggest concerns are zinc oxide and salicylates. The ASPCA lists both as the main ingredients to avoid in any product applied to a pet. Zinc oxide, that thick white cream you see on lifeguards’ noses, can damage a pet’s red blood cells if it’s ingested, and pets will lick it off. Salicylates, chemicals related to aspirin, can cause stomach ulcers, vomiting, and, in serious cases, liver damage if a pet eats them in quantity.

A published case report in the Open Veterinary Journal documented a small dog who developed severe anemia after repeatedly licking a zinc oxide cream that had been applied to her skin. The dog required emergency care and intensive treatment. The ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center fields many calls about sunscreen ingestion during warmer months.

The direction from veterinary toxicologists is clear: only use sunscreens specifically made for pets, and check with your vet before trying any new product. When choosing a pet-safe sunscreen, look for one that protects against both UVA and UVB rays and has an SPF of at least 30. Apply it 10 to 15 minutes before sun exposure, and reapply often, especially if your pet swims. Focus on the vulnerable spots: the nose, ear tips, belly, and any area with thin fur or pink skin.

Simple Steps That Make a Real Difference

The easiest protection is shade. Keep outdoor pets shaded during the hottest and sunniest part of the day, roughly between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Walk your dog early in the morning or in the evening. Provide shelter and shady spots for any animals that spend time outside.

For pets who love to bask in the sun, UV-protective clothing is a practical option. These garments have come a long way from the novelty dog shirt. They’re designed to allow comfortable movement, wick moisture, and block UV rays all at the same time.

And check your pet’s skin regularly. Run your hands over their body every few weeks. Look for new lumps, sores that won’t heal, or skin that looks unusual. The earlier you catch something, the better.

Your pet trusts you completely. They don’t know what UV radiation is. They don’t know that the warm patch of sunlight on the floor could be doing them harm. That part is yours to handle. And now, thankfully, the veterinary industry is giving you more tools than ever to do it.

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Children need to empathize with their pet’s feelings and experience what it’s like to be in their shoes to provide the best care possible. Also, they develop this talent early in life, which serves them well throughout their early development and beyond.

Pets are a great way to teach kids about compassion, another valuable character trait. When children see their pet in pain or ill, they frequently develop strong empathy for the animal. Teaching kids to feel this emotion will serve them well as they mature.

Finally, having a pet may teach kids a lot about responsibility. Feeding, walking, and cleaning up after a pet are all responsibilities that children can take on. This teaches kids they need to put in the effort to care for their pets properly if they want them to be healthy and happy. And pet ownership expands into later life factors, including cognitive development and social aspects of their lives.

But there are important considerations before choosing an appropriate pet for a child. Do your homework to choose the best pet for your family and children.

Hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, and fish are all good pets for kids. Children can learn responsibility, patience, and how to care for another living thing by caring for one of these pets. Animal bonding may be more important than you think.

The company of both children and pets is invaluable. Having a pet is a great way for kids to make friends and learn about responsibility and the value of hard work. Because taking care of a pet requires a lot of exercise, pet owners are more likely to be active themselves.

Consider a few things before bringing a pet into your home. Find a pet that is a good fit for you and your family by doing some homework first. For example, if you’re thinking about a dog, what will its size be at maturity and during its early life stages? A small dog may be injured, causing emotional distress in the child. One that is too large at maturity won’t be a good choice.

After settling on a pet, it’s important to make time in your schedule for the basic care of your new companion. Finally, be ready for some more clutter and noise in your home, but it will all be worth seeing the delight on your child’s face.

Yes, bringing a pet into your home for your child will mean your schedule and normal activities may be disrupted for a time. But think about the benefits instead of the few bad things that can happen when kids have pets.

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Diseases such as cystic fibrosis and the infections that may come with it and their seriousness to the lung are usually dependent on airway sampling at 2 to 3-month intervals, which permits bacterial infections to exist and grow. More readily available means of detecting these infections would seem to be a prudent method of ensuring high-quality healthcare for these patients. Might dogs be the answer?

It is now becoming evident that one means of detecting a variety of illnesses, whether viruses, bacteria, or others, may be monitored through the individual’s breath. Breath sampling, therefore, seems to be a desirable means of ongoing evaluation for potential illness or the presence of disease.

One of the most promising non-invasive diagnostic methods that has also attracted great research interest during the last years is breath analysis; the method detects gas-analytes such as exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and inorganic gases that are considered to be essential biomarkers for various disease types.

This type of analysis provides a less complicated method than procedures such as gastroscopy, laryngoscopy, and coronary angiography. In the process, it increases patient compliance for ongoing evaluation. Where do the dogs fit into this medical evaluation?

Research has indicated that more than 2000 VOCs have been detected in the breath, including hydrocarbons, alcohol, ketones, certain acids, aromatic compounds, sulfides, and other substances. These substances in the breath are associated with the environment and the person’s habits and can also be created by body temperature and metabolism.

Those VOCs produced in the airway or other parts of the human body are prime for trained dog scent detection. It should be noted that a dog’s scent detection can be more significant than 40 times a human’s ability to sense a scent. Some estimates place a dog’s sensitivity in this area at up to 10K that of humans, depending on the breed and the situation.

In 1989, the first report of a dog sniffing out its owner’s melanoma was reported. The woman had a pigmented lesion on her thigh, which had been removed and confirmed to be malignant melanoma.

She had been alerted to a problem by her dog repeatedly sniffing at the mole, and, at one time, the dog attempted to bite off the lesion when the patient wore shorts. Undoubtedly, the dog’s actions were primed by the scent of cancer, and it was trying to aid its owner. It has been noted that dogs frequently will smell and lick infected wounds.

What about stress? Breath and sweat samples have been used in recent studies to train dogs to differentiate between samples of stressed individual odors and those of blank samples.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the breath and sweat of stressed individuals were accurately detected between 90 to 96% of the time by trained dogs, indicating an understanding of the dog’s ability to detect stress. The researchers suggested that this ability to detect stress would be especially valuable for individuals with emotional support dogs or service dogs that could help them through periods of emotional turmoil with their support.

If a dog can detect stress because of the VOCs detected, would it be reasonable that they could also detect other emotions? The question will prompt others to research an extension of this study and may turn up some intriguing answers regarding the place of dogs in medicine and our emotional lives.

Considering the ability of dogs to be loving, faithful medical assets, can we make a case for dog ownership by healthy individuals even where dogs may not be permitted?

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You may already know about the smell-sensing abilities of dogs. But dogs are not the champion in the sniffing arena. Smithsonian Magazine describes this animal as a walking dictionary of odors. Do you know to what animal it refers?

If you guessed the elephant, you are correct. Writing in Smithsonian Magazine, Paul Waggoner, associate director of the Canine Detection Research Institute at Auburn University, adds that rats and mice smell at least as well as dogs, and jackals are uncanny.

But for attitude? Your German shepherd prevails over those other animals. The problem? Training and keeping a detection dog is challenging and not cheap. Researchers are turning to mice, locusts, honeybees, and other animals in this context.

Cancer detection — Enter the ant

“Am I as admirable as that ant?”
― Nobuyuki Fukumoto, Saikyō Densetsu Kurosawa 11

Having been blessed to have studied with the late pioneer of evolutionary biology, E.O. Wilson, and his colleague Bert Hölldobler, I am fascinated with ants.

As a doctor specializing in cancer, you can imagine my delight at seeing this headline: “Cancer-sniffing ants prove as accurate as dogs in detecting disease.”

Scientists in France have shown they can rapidly train a specific ant species to detect cancer cells. Moreover, the accuracy of the insects is equivalent to that seen in other bio-detection heroes, including dogs.

The new study examines the ant species Formica fusca. Could these ants be trained? The researchers already knew that ants can home in on particular volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and that certain cancer types are identifiable by their unique VOCs.

Can these two observations be combined? In other words, can ants be trained to detect cancer cells?

In as few as three training trials, the ants learned to differentiate between cancer and non-cancer cells with an accuracy similar to that seen in dog studies.

The researchers concluded:

“Formica fusca ants can detect the VOCs emitted by cancer cells. A conditioning protocol based on only three training trials was sufficient for ants to associate cell-derived VOCs with a reward. Ants were able to i) perceive the presence of cells in a medium, ii) differentiate cancerous VOCs from non-cancerous ones, and iii) differentiate between two cancerous samples based on VOCs.”

The ants appear to be as good at detecting cancer as their canine counterparts. However, ants require only 30 minutes of training (over a training time of about three days), while dogs generally take 6 to 12 months.

Remarkably, the ants could distinguish between two different forms of breast cancer: The most favorable form (Luminal A)and a more aggressive one (“triple-negative”), respectively.

The researchers, referencing historical ant training investigations, believe that individual ants can be used to detect cancer cells up to nine times before their conditioned responses begin to wane.

This study is proof of concept, as numerous problems would need to be solved before ants can help detect cancer in the real world. Still, I am delighted that ants have demonstrated one more remarkable ability.

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The Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine and Food Festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Our divided world comes together united by delicious food and spirits. Guests can eat, drink and raise money for Florida International University Chaplin School of Hospitality.

Having dogs sniff for Covid is not as crazy as it sounds. The Miami Heat tested out the use of coronavirus-sniffing dogs to help screen fans for entry to basketball games. Now, the well-trained dogs are helping thousands of people enjoy all the South Beach Wine and Food Festival has to offer.

The South Beach Wine & Food Festival is working hard to make the 20th anniversary special in Miami. As guests arrive, the dogs weave and mingle through the lines with their handlers. The canine crew searches for the smell of Covid, which they detect on the skin.

When the dogs detect the Covid scent, they calmly sit down to notify the handler of a potential case. The handler then directs the guest to a conveniently located tent. The guest can undergo a rapid Covid test before returning to the festival.

Dogs are only one part of the Covid surveillance team. One thousand five hundred students from Florida International University are performing temperature checks, encouraging maks, and sanitizing the festival area.

The festival runs May 20-23 in Miami Beach. The organizers prepared the video to help guests to understand the safety protocols. All guests require proof of vaccination or a rapid test no more than 72 hours before the event. The event requires mask-wearing, and tables will be arranged more than six feet apart.

Canine Covid sniffers add another layer of protection as the world learns how to function with our new normal. The United Arab Emirates was the first airport to add airport sniffer dogs to detect COVID-19 on passengers. Travelers still underwent Covid PCR testing, but the addition of canine screening helped accurately detect infected travelers.

A small report in Nature showed the dogs’ detection of Covid-19 correlated with PCR testing with 92% accuracy. This level of accuracy means that dogs can accurately screen large groups of people for Covid-19 without the need for mass testing.

The super sniffing abilities of dogs are well-known. Hunters partner with man’s best friend in the search for wild game. Detection dogs are commonplace in airports and customs agencies to detect explosives and illegal drugs. Police train dogs to detect blood or search for victims and suspects. 

While the human nose has five million scent receptors, canine noses have 300 million. Sniffer dogs are trained to detect patterns of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). With Covid-19, researchers have not yet determined what exactly the dogs are smelling. The report in Nature suggests human viral illness creates a distinct pattern of VOCs recognizable to the dogs. 

Published data is scant, but several studies to validate the efficacy of canine screening are in progress. Dr. Riad Sarkis, a Lebanese surgeon at the French St Joseph University in Beirut, is studying the issue in conjunction with the National Veterinary School of Alfort. The preliminary data is encouraging but unpublished at this time. 

Dogs may not be the ultimate answer, but our furry friends add a layer of protection as we test out ways to enjoy life after the pandemic. This innovative step from the South Beach Wine & Food Festival is an excellent example of companies finding ways to get us back to the things we love.

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