Todays Heat Wave

[Helikaon]

Im not sure if anyone else had any problems with the heat today, but i came home to a not so good surprise.
Worst thing about working in the veterinary industry is that we work all day helping other peoples animals and not a home looking after our own. left this morn 6:30am got home 8:45pm made sure i turned on the fans in the reptile room and made sure the windows were open but unfortunately it got hot enough inside to kill 3 of my juvenile snakes (2 murrays and a yearling wa stimo) and about 40 of my rat colony. Even my poor rag doll was going into heat stroke. he will never trust me again after the cold bath to cool him down. been here 4 yrs now and have never had it get so hot before. Sucks thats for sure. Wish id turned the air con on for them now, hind sight would have been good.

 

[Darlyn]

Sorry to hear mate, did you not know of the impending heatwave? How hot was it?

 

[Trouble]

Ahh crap, Gary That's not good at all! It was hot here in Karalee (of course you guessed that) But no where near what it got up at your place!
So sorry for your loss Glad your little rag doll was able to be saved though
We brought our dog inside for the first time in ages as he was panting like crazy! He's loving the air con now :lol: Going to be hard to make him go sleep out side now lol. I really hope tomorrow brings a storm, way too hot today! The humidity just made it worse :?

 

[Renenet]

That sucks, Helikaon. What was the top outside temperature?

 

[Sezzzzzzzzz]

Sorry to hear of your loss How hot did it get??

 

[phantomreptiles]

Oh I am sorry:-(
I was lucky enough to be off today, but spent the day getting an outside fan on the rats, and trying to rig some cooling air into my reptile room, it was very stressful (no a/c)
Again I am sorry to hear of your loss

 

[Trouble]

It got to 40.3*C here in Karalee, just near Ipswich. Think I heard on the news it was around 39.4*C in Toowoomba.
Very hot day, with another scortcher on the way tomorrow!

 

[Sezzzzzzzzz]

I always worry about the heat as I dont have aircon.. But have been lucky so far that Sydney has only had a few hot days..

 

[Kitarsha]

Got over 40 where i was, not quite as bad at home except when you went inside!!! Luckily my cats have access to an outdoor cat run, and i got the reptiles into the outdoor glassed area yesterday where i can leave the doors and windows open to ease the heat somewhat. Still thinking to add more air vents to the enclosures tho!

 

[Helikaon]

not sure of the exact temps but i checked the thermo in my fridge incubator and inside got to 38 and the room got to about 45 luckily the hatchys in the incubator didnt fry. just hoping the remaining eggs dont die now.

 

[phantomreptiles]

Can't swear but "f" me that's hot!! We got 39c
Slightly O/T, but does anyone know if there is an a/c that can be freestanding?

 

[warren63]

Dont know how hot it got here throughout the day on the coast but was 29 degrees when i got home. i did leave work right on five to get home to check on them. thankfully nothing too stressed in my geckos except a couple of leaf tails spread eagled on the substrate. Sprayed the leafies down with cool water and just put a few bottles into the freezer for tomorrow and will slip into their enclosures before departing for the day. hope fully this will keep them cooler tomorrow.

 

[Scleropages]

wow wonder ow hot it got? I had 38C in my hatchy room and everything is ok

 

[MathewB]

Top temp at the Gold Coast Seaway was 31.4* with 95% humidity

 

[getarealdog]

Sorry to hear Helikaon, On really hot days I put most of the animals in tubs in the bathroom on the tiles & in the bath tub & shower floor. All power switched off in garage (where the animals are kept), leave the adders in there they don't seem to mind & half cover my outdoor pits with shade cloth just to take some of the direct heat off. The 3 days we just had of temps above 37 the rocks reached 58+ & the colourbond walls over 70! They do have underground level hides & i also put in the pits buckets of water (pits contain Tiger Snakes, never seen them in them yet?).

 

[notechistiger]

Thankfully my reptile room didn't get too hot, even though it was sweltering outside! I guess I'm lucky this house and the outside room are made of double layered brick >.<

That sucks about your animals, Helikaon. Glad to hear that everyone else is okay though. Make it a habit to check bom.gov.au every morning. They're generally pretty accurate with the temperature (not always with the rain though hehe), so at least then you'll know to put the air con on or not =)

 

[Wild~Touch]

Helikaon

Sorry to hear of your heat losses

No wonder we sweltered as it was the hottest day for 8 years and more to come.

Check the The Weather Channel as well as bom

 

[Jay84]

Its not uncommon in Melbourne to get a few days over 40 degrees in the summer. Surely it was forecast to be hot? I don't understand why you wouldn't have left the aircon on?

Sorry for your loss i am sure your rag doll will forgive you.

Over New Years in Melbourne we had 37, 40 and 39 degree days all in a row. I live in an old victorian terrace house that is like an oven in summer. The bricks heat up and stay like a hot plate, radiatingheat for days. I spent all week tracking down 2 portable aircon units. One for the rodent shed and one for the lounge when i am home and the laundry for when i am out and the dog has to be shut away. In my un insulated shed i did not loose one rat, mouse or rabbit. It was still warm in there but the heat did not reach dangerous levels. I turned off all heating in the snake room too.

It is a horrible thing, but we just need to make sure we are all prepared.

 

[wokka]

You can control air-conditioners with thermostats so you dont need to turn them on or off before you go to work. Good insulation will keep heat out. My snake rooms are 50mm coolroom panel and even that keeps them below 34c when the temperature outside reaches 40c as long as the heating inside is turned off. I turn all the heat off a couple of days befor any predicted heatwave so the rooms are cooler to start with in case the heat hangs about,althought it is seldom that the top temperature remains for more than a few hours.

 

[ozziepythons]

Ah yes, I have had plenty of practice here in SA with roasting heat waves and co-ordinating a cooling strategy for my reptile room. I once came home to find a juvenile Gammon Ranges Carpet Python overheated and after cooling him down, he suffered a neurological problem for days after the actually disappeared after a week. That was it, and now whenever the forcast is 30DegC or over (the max can hover at 40DegC for days) the blinds are drawn, all supplementary heat and lights are unplugged and the airconditioner is set to a timer to go on for most of the day.
I hope that for you Gary this is your one off bad experience with over heating and that you will set up a similar strategy.