Have a Happy Howliday With These Pet Safety Tips
The festive winter holidays make for a spectacularly fun season for us humans. But our decorations and jovial parties put our pets at risk! Here are some tips for keeping your pets safe this season.
- Decorating a Christmas tree? If you have a cat, skip the tinsel. Cats are particularly attracted to shiny objects, so they’ll likely try and play with it. Accidentally ingesting tinsel can cause gastrointestinal obstructions.
- Secure your Christmas tree to the ground or the wall to keep it from falling over if your dog bumps it or your cat climbs it. Better yet, you can deter your pets from the tree altogether by hanging lemon-scented air fresheners in it.
- Many popular holiday plants, like holly, mistletoe, poinsettias and lilies, are highly toxic to cats and dogs and can cause organ failure and death if pets eat them. Keep all plants well out of reach.
- Chocolate, grapes, raisins, onions, currants, macadamia nuts or walnuts are on the naughty list for your pet, as is xylitol (a sweetener often found in chewing gum, candy, and peanut butter). Ingesting them can result in upset stomachs, heart arrhythmia, kidney failure and seizures.
- If you are having holiday parties and your pet is often excitable or scared when you have company over, consider putting your pet in another room with toys and a comfortable bed. This way, your pet has somewhere to hide and feel safe outside of the commotion.
- Watch those boozy beverages! It doesn’t take much for small animals to get alcohol poisoning, which can cause serious health complications.
For more information on pet-proofing your season, give us a call at 336-275-7266.