Pet Safety During Holidays Requires a Watchful Eye!
So much excitement. People in and out of the house. Holiday trees and ornaments. Special treats and way too much food. Humans are not the only one who can be overwhelmed during our traditional hectic holiday season. As the season seems to get longer every year, it becomes time, much earlier, to start keeping an eye out for potential problems for our pets.
Too Much Company
The holidays, for many of us, are an important gathering time for family and friends. Often times there are people going in and out of doors, loud talking and singing, occasional staggering. Pets can get caught in the cross fire. Some are frightened by all the commotion and others can find ways to flee through the frequently opening doors.
What You Can Do.
If your pets are out and about and enjoy company, keep your guests informed about the risk of escapees and insist that only you open the door to allow people in and out. Keep an eye on your pets for exhaustion from all the activity. even the best “party animals” will need a break. Better still, give your pets a safe, quiet and secure place away from all from it all, especially if they are frightened or excitable by nature. Consider putting them in a room with a Do Not Disturb sign on the door. Give your pets their favorite toys and bedding and keep the lights lower. You can even consider turning on a television or low laying music, if they are accustomed to it, to help drown out the ruckus. Who knows, you may even chose to join them.
Too Much Good Food
Friends and family often mean well when they are handing food under the table to our pets. However, eating rich foods can cause substantial problems for our pets. First, there is the vomiting and diarrhea which is unpleasant for us as well as them. More serious problems like pancreatitis, an inflammation of one of the main digestive glands, can develop and actually be life threatening. Then, of course, the inevitable turkey or prime rib bones, that can crack and splinter and pierce internal organs as they try to make their way through the digestive season. Corn on the cob? One of the most common foreign body surgeries veterinarians seem to do during holidays. The cob will not digest and pieces commonly lodge and block the digestive tract.
What You Can Do.
Ask you friends and family to not sneak food to the pets. Ask them to keep their trays and plates out of reach. If this cannot be done, move your pets to another room during the festivities and do not let them out until after the clean up.
Toxic Foods, Even in Small Amounts
You and I may love to crunch on those holiday Macadamia nuts and raisins, but these can be toxic to our pets. Grapes as well. These can cause kidney failure. Chocolate is often a problem from Halloween time onward. It can cause vomiting, diarrhea, tremors, seizures and even death. The darker the chocolate, the higher the toxicity. Onions can cause anemia problems. Counting calories? The Xylitol artificial sweeteners are another group of very toxic compounds. Have a headache? Be certain to keep you Tylenol securely away from cats. One tablet could potentially be lethal.
What You Can Do.
Certainly you can chose to only have pet safe snacks in the house. Definitely keep the sugar free treats and chocolates securely closed off from reach. Make certain your guests know about the hazards and if they bring any of these treats to your party, and consider moving the pets to a safe area in the home.
Decorations – Toxins and Obstructions
Some hazards are likely in our homes year round, like Gorilla glue, alcoholic beverages, Styrofoam, crayons, paints super glue. Keeping pets away from these objects, while second nature during most of the year, may be more of a problem during holidays because we are distracted with so many other activities. Holiday specific hazards, such Christmas tree preservatives, snow spray, snow flock, fire place colors, and bubbling tree lights can range from low to moderate toxicity. Tinsel and curling ribbons can be a huge problem for cats. These stringy objects are favored for ingestion and tend to get trapped in their digestive system and can actually cut through the intestinal loops. Be very careful of children’s projects where edible treats (popcorn or cereals, for example) are strung on thread or yarn. String foreign body surgery is a common occurrence in veterinary hospitals over the holidays. While Poinsettia leaves, pine, cedar and fir are of low grade toxicity, Holly berries and leaves and lilies are known toxins and Mistletoe (especially the berries) is extremely toxic! Potpourri is often concentrated toxins because the drying process removes the water and leaves behind the resins and oil.
What You Can Do.
Keep a watchful eye, especially when little children are working on projects when the pets are around. Chose your decorations with your pets in mind. Keep the more breakable ornaments higher on the tree so wagging tails don’t knock them off. Do not use tinsel if you have cats and ban curling ribbon from the house or clip it off gifts people bring into your home. Offer string licorice (Not sugar free – remember Xylitol toxicity) to use when creating string chains with treats. While too much licorice can cause some digestive upset, that is certainly better than an emergency surgery on Christmas eve. If you have real mistletoe in your house, hang it very securely, so it cannot possibly fall, and far out of reach of climbers and jumpers in your house. Better yet, substitute artificial plants. Do not leave pets alone in a room with potpourri or toxic plants.
Other Holiday Hazards
Holidays often have lit candles and trees loaded with ornaments often supported only by a tree stand. Candles clearly area a fire hazard when scurrying cats and wagging tails are in the area. Trees can be knocked over by the playing dog or the climbing cats. Broken ornaments can cause lacerations and even potentially foreign body ingestion.
What You Can Do.
Consider only burning your candles in the fireplace with the screen or glass door securely shut. If you burn them on tables or counters keep them out of reach of tails and leaping pets. Be certain they are all completely extinguished before you leave the room, even if just for a minute. Keep a fire extinguisher handy. Secure your tree by tying it into a corner of the room. You can refill the nail holes in your walls after the holiday. Keep only pet safe ornaments on the tree, especially where tails and mouths can reach. Put citrus smells, such as an Airwick or car air fresheners, around the base of the tree to deter the cats from climbing.
Winter Hazards in General – Recommendations
Not all hazards during the winter are directly tied to our holiday celebrations. Certainly the cold, wind, and wet can be deadly to our pets. Ideally, all pets should be kept indoors during the bad weather. When they do go outside, remember when they come in to check their paws for packed ice and snow in the webbing, check for cuts or broken nails from breaking through a snow crust, and wipe off any snow removal salt from their feet, which can be toxic if licked off in the grooming process. Select pet friendly snow melt products only. If the only option for your pet is outdoor housing, it should be well insulated or even heated, elevated off the ground, have a flap over the entrance to keep out the bad weather, and have a warm clean dry bedding material. Water sources may need to be heated to prevent freezing. In severe weather, even outdoor pets need to be brought indoors.
If you like to ice skate, do not take your dog out to play on a “frozen” body of water as they can roam further out and fall through.
If you park your car outside of an enclosed garage, remember to check under the hood and even honk your horn before starting up your engine. Take a peek around your wheel wells, too. Roaming cats have been known to crawl up under the engine or on top of warm tires and fall asleep. Starting or moving your car with one of these unexpected passengers can be catastrophic.
Antifreeze leaking from automobiles is an extremely common and rapidly fatal problem to pets. Unfortunately, pets like the taste of it and will lap it up. Be certain all antifreeze containers, full or empty, are secured away from pets. Check under your car frequently for leakage, usually a green or pink color fluid. Chose pet friendly antifreezes if available.
Keeping a close eye on pets, reducing their exposure to all the excitement, choosing safe products, food, and decorations, and using general common sense can help make the holidays and winter season less stressful for all.
Read more on the PVMA fact sheet Winter Safety Tips for Your Pet.