I bought one of these to see if they were any good.  So far the verdict is "NO!"

I put it in the corner where the dogs lay and within 24 hours I saw avalanche, who had been laying on it, licking it.  Checked on it and there was a leak.  Nowhere does it say what the gel it contains is other than "non-toxic".

At the moment I have a dog with a very upset stomach and he's (Avalanche, of course) not eating for about 36 hours now.  Gagged up some bile (from not eating, I presume)

Does anyone have any experience with these mats - like what the contents *really* are?  

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My review of these indicates a few different things.

• They are ineffective where the external temperature is higher than a dogs normal temperature. When the room temp is in the 90's they can't 'wick' away the heat from the dog - there isn't enough temperature difference.
  
• Couldn't handle one day of his walking on it before it started to leak, not durable at all
  
• There is no list of ingredients anywhere; define non-toxic!  Obviously it's toxic enough to upset his tummy badly - I hope it's not so "non-toxic" that it's going to kill him.
  

Obviously it's being returned ....

So heres what i found. Not the question but the answer attached to it. https://www.instructables.com/community/whats-the-gel-made-of-inside-a-pressure-activated/

Also has the link to pppthe company that owns the technology

(@lostmaniac) Thank you very much Emily! Now why couldn't I find that? I'm normally pretty good at finding things on the web but that completely eluded me.

The one item that, in quantity, might be a problem is the carboxmethyl cellulose - but that takes more than a few licks to be a problem.   justanswers/vet says that there might be some "mild transient bout of vomiting and / or diarrhoea" (for a dog who had eaten two bottles of eye drops that contained carboxymethyl cellulose.  The other two items don't even rate that much of a warning.

I get concerned when Avalanche doesn't eat - in the first place he's notoriously underweight and in the second, he does like his food!

In any case, I'll be watching him like a hawk for the next few days - until he gets his appetite back.  Might even get a couple of cans of dog food for him just to entice.

For those who are interested, the ingredients are:

• thirty percent carboxymethyl cellulose;
  
• twenty percent water;
  
• thirty-five percent polyacrylamide; and
  
• fifteen percent alginic acid.
  

It was the right phrasing. When i knew to look for phase change instead of pressure activated it all came up

Hmph!! Smarty pants!!!

Final comment on this pad.

The retailer replied to my request for ingredients with:

Quote :

Thank you for your note and I am so sorry this happened to your pad. Here is the info from the manufacturer:

Quote :

This product is not meant for consumption. While the gel is non-toxic, we always recommend taking your pet to the veterinarian if they ingest any part of the Chillz Gel Mat. In some cases, allergic reaction can occur which can affect the health of your pet. If your pet is prone to chewing, DO NOT leave it unattended with the Chillz Gel Mat.

In my response I said that *I* was really sorry that this happened to my pet, the hell with their pad!  Also noted that I saw where they hadn't responded to my request for a list of ingredients (which @lostmaniac had already found)

So I guess that my feelings about this pad now would rate it and their customer service at something less than zero.

I wanted to try to get something for my pups that would make my temperature more comfortable for them and that appears to have failed badly.  Since the gel pad route is obviously, to me, a dead end I'm thinking about trying a raised pad - my pups aren't chewers and generally are non-destructive.

And a final note, the gel upset Avalanche so that he didn't eat for 36-48 hours which, as I noted earlier, concerned me.  He nibbled at his food last night and ate normally this morning so it apparently didn't have any permanent effect.

So dog cooling pad.. diy take a comforter or blanket get it slightly damp and set it in the freezer. Thats what we did on the farm instead of ac

I've used a damp towel and Sasha will lay on that - but then she'll lay on it when it's dry too ... of my three, only Avalanche wanted anything to do with the Chillz Pad.
We've lived for years without anything special - breeze through the house from open doors mostly - so I'm thinking I may just leave well enough alone.

We had ice blankets for the horses. When it got really hot in md i had to use cooling blankets for the barn cats. They were old and spoiled. But even in 100+ heat my grandpa refused to turn the ac on. I used to keep clothes in the freezer for that reason.