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Summer unofficially ended after Labor Day, but the sun is still blazing. There are several things concerned owners can do to keep their pets safe during the September heat. Getty Images

If you’re looking for the healthiest pet, you may want to consider living on the West Coast. An investigation done by Care.com’s Think Tank included data from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The analysts came up with their rankings of states with the healthiest pets using four categories: prevalence of pet-related illness, access to veterinary care, healthy environment, and non-medical pet-related expenses. Their data included only cats and dogs.

Read: Top 10 Reasons Pets Are Good For Your Health

Top 10 States with the Healthiest Pets:

  1. Montana
  2. Nebraska
  3. Colorado
  4. New Mexico
  5. Idaho
  6. New Hampshire
  7. South Dakota
  8. Wyoming
  9. Kansas
  10. North Dakota

The five unhealthiest states for pets were Arkansas, South Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Here’s the full list of rankings.

Most households in the United States have at least one pet. Some of the health benefits of having a furry, four-legged friend include decreases in blood pressure, cholesterol levels, triglyceride levels and feelings of loneliness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But are the same places where the healthiest cats and dogs live, the same places where the healthiest people reside?

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A potentially harmful ingredient present in candies and gums – which is otherwise safe for humans – can kill dogs. Getty Images/Francisco Leong/AFP

In comparison with newly released health and well-being rankings by Gallup and Healthways, only three states appear in the top ten on both lists: Montana, Colorado, and South Dakota.

For overall well-being for humans, Hawaii took the number one spot.

The rankings by Gallup were determined with a 55-question survey taken by over 177,000 Americans. Survey questions asked Americans how they feel about their physical health, social connections, finances, community, and sense of purpose.

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