12/23/2024
Every year we get the opportunity to celebrate many holidays with our pets, which includes lots of food, gifts, and the excitement of gathering with loved ones. With all this activity, it’s important to ensure we’re taking some extra precautions for the paws underfoot!🐾🎄🎅❤
To give you some peace of mind when preparing for holiday festivities with your pet, we’re sharing some of our top tips on how to keep pets safe! Watch Out for These Potential Holiday Hazards for Your Pets
Mind the Decorations🎄
From hanging ornaments to lit candles, both the appearance and presence of your favorite decorations might lead your pet to think of them as toys or things to be chewed on. Here are some common items to watch for:
🎀Wrapping, ribbons, tinsel, lights, and small ornaments: If consumed, these may cause your pet to choke or have an internal blockage.
🎀Glass and metal hooks: Put delicate items up high to avoid breaks, as these items could cause a nasty scratch or puncture to your pet.
🎀Electrical wires: Many animals are prone to chewing on cords, which can lead to electrical shock, burns, and blockages if ingested.
🎀Christmas trees and standing displays: Curious pets, especially those prone to climbing, can knock over these centerpieces and injure themselves as well as others. Having a secure base and monitoring your pet can help avoid accidents.
Be mindful of where you’re placing decorations and make sure any potential objects that your pet could mistake as a toy are placed out of their reach.
Did Someone Say Treats?🍬🍫
When pets consume human food that they shouldn’t – either when left unattended or offered by good-intentioned but unaware people, it can lead to problems for us and our pets. The top things to watch for are:
🍫Chocolate: In general cocoa powder and darker chocolate are more dangerous, however, the ingestion of chocolate along with its other components like wrapping, nuts, and fruit can also be a cause for concern. There are many chocolate toxicity calculators available online that you can use to evaluate the dangers of chocolate to your pet if they have ingested it.
🥩Uncooked meat: Bacteria like Salmonella in raw meat can be harmful to pets. Meat like ham can also be high in sodium, which is not healthy in large amounts.
🍞Bread dough: The yeast in uncooked bread can cause expansion of the dough in your pet’s stomach, which can put pressure on their organs and cause their stomach to bloat.
🥂Alcohol: High levels of alcohol are dangerous to your pet, even if they’re used for cooking purposes! Don’t forget about other foods that may contain alcohol, like fruitcakes.
🍬Candy and artificial sweeteners: High amounts of sugar can negatively affect your pet. Xylitol (often found in chewing gum, sugar-free candy, and peanut butter) is extremely toxic to dogs and cats, even in small amounts, and can require immediate veterinary care if your pet eats anything containing it.
It’s important to pay attention to the amount of human food your pets are getting, even if they are allowed small samples. If you and your guests each give samples of food high in sugar, fat, and salt to your pets, it can lead to an upset stomach and long-term medical concerns like pancreatitis.
Don’t Be Fooled by Beautiful Plant Life🌱🌺🌷
Plants often smell and look interesting to pets, and can have textures that can be tempting to chew on for animals. Some common holiday plants to keep away from pets include:
🌺Poinsettia: Although only mildly toxic, exposure to the sap or ingestion can still cause irritation and discomfort in your pets.
🌺Lilies: These are especially dangerous to cats, since the entire plant can be toxic. If you have cats at home, it’s safer to avoid having lilies entirely.
🎄Mistletoe: Consumption can cause gastrointestinal upset. If the berries have been replaced with plastic, these can also pose a risk for choking or blockages.
🎄Christmas trees: If you have a live tree, your pet can irritate their stomach by eating the pine needles or by drinking the water, which can contain preservatives and sap.
Remember, festive plants might be wonderful to look at, but they can be very dangerous for your pets. Make sure you keep any plants out of their reach.
Be Mindful of Medications💊
The cold weather and variety of uncommon foods, plus extra guests – can mean there are more opportunities for medications that can cause harm to your pet to be around. Taking medication not meant for you is harmful not just for you, but your pet as well. Here are some common ones to watch out for:
💊Cough & Throat Lozenges: Easing a sore throat can pose a few risks to your pets, as unattended packages or loose mints set on a table can be a choking hazard and may also contain xylitol. These may also contain pseudoephedrine and phenylephrine, which can negatively affect pets in large doses.
💊Pill & Gel Pain Relievers: Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) like aspirin and ibuprofen are toxic to pets and can cause kidney damage. Ferrets are especially sensitive to ibuprofen. Acetaminophen, which is found in Tylenol, can cause liver damage to both cats and dogs.
💊Liquid Cold & Flu Medications: These drugs often contain a variety of ingredients (including some listed above) that can be just as dangerous for pets as the pill forms. Common medications to watch out for are Sudafed, Tylenol Cold, Nyquil, and Benylin.
Always store any medications somewhere safe where your pet can’t get into them, such as a locked cabinet, so that you don’t have to worry about them mistaking these hazardous substances as treats or food.
Keep your pets safe this holiday season! ❤️💚
Kenmount Road Animal Hospital is a full service veterinary care facility.
