For Dogs and their owners

Smoke from a 20,000 acre fire in Holly Shelter Game Land in Pender County, NC has covered most of Onslow County and parts of Pender and New Hanover Counties in a hazardous air quality zone  for days. The evening and early morning hours are when the highest particle concentrations have generally occurred.

Health officials from Onslow Memorial Hospital recommend people remain indoors in the air conditioning. Anyone with asthma or other respiratory problems are being instructed to stay indoors and drink plenty of water. If you have to go outside you should wear a mask to filter smoke particles.

Fine particles can penetrate deeply into the lungs and be absorbed into the bloodstream, causing or aggravating heart and lung diseases, according to the N.C. Division of Air Quality.

Of course your dog and other pets should be protected from inhaling area wildfire smoke with its fine particle levels. If you keep your dogs and cats outdoors, you should bring them inside as they are just as vulnerable to the health risks. Pets exposed to the smoke who exhibit stress symptoms such as coughing or having trouble breathing should be brought to a veterinarian.

State air quality experts are predicting unhealthy air quality, in Onslow, Carteret, Craven, Dare, Duplin, Hyde, Jones, Lenoir and Pender counties as well as Manteo and the northern Outer Banks.