Holidays and Pet Safety

The Holidays are fast approaching; it's only weeks until Thanksgiving and that is fast followed by Christmas. This means lots of family, lots of meals, lots of company and lots of chaos.

If you have dogs or cats you have to be on the alert. First of all make sure your pet has identification on them at all times. People are coming and going, doors are opening and closing, people are in your house who aren't familiar with your pets or your lay out and it only takes a moment for a pet to slip out of the door. Preferably, you should consider locking the pets in one area and posting a sign on the door saying Do Not Open. This keeps the animal in a safe, confined space and prevents them from getting out a door. It also keeps them away from tables full of food or people who would slip them a little something when they beg at the table I had one dog snag an entire flank steak off a grill so better safe than sorry.

If you aren't comfortable with locking up your pet make sure you have pet friendly treats on hand this way guests can make friends with your pet and the pet will be happy as well. You could also keep a few of the pets favorite toys around so the guests can interact with your pet rather than feed him or her. If your guests have children you need to be especially careful. Not all children are good with animals and even good children and good pets can have bad run ins. Either supervise those children or make sure their parents do so if you can trust them. Even if your pet is the best pet in the world children can be unpredictable, their high pitched voices can trigger a bad response in a pet and in general follow the better safe than sorry rule.

Make sure, if your dog is going to be loose, (or your cat ) that they don't force themselves on your guests. Not everyone wants Pussums to climb on their lap and no one likes a dog that jumps on you or slobbers on you. Again I would opt for locking the pets up to keep everyone safe and keep everything pleasant unless your pet is extremely well behaved. If your pet is a bird I would move the cage to a quiet room and cover it as well as lock the door.

There are poisonous plants (Poinsettia) and usually lots of chocolate during the Holidays. Chocolate is toxic to dogs. It doesn't take much to make them incredibly sick. With food like Turkey you have the strings holding the bird together, the carcass and all it's dangerous bones. Bones can perforate an animals intestines. This leads us to garbage pails. Many dogs will poke around in the garbage pail and that's very dangerous. Not just because of bones or string but there are bits of aluminum that has made contact with food but garbage in general holds all sorts of things that could prove to be a real problem for a pet..

A Christmas tree in itself is alluring for cats and dogs. The ornaments look like playthings and everything is sparkly. A gated area around the tree would be a good idea. A cat can try climbing a tree and a tree loaded with ornaments crashing down is not a good thing.

Many pets can become quite irritable with so much noise, so many people, the music, the smell of food they cannot access and they can become snappy. You don't want a law suit around the Holidays. No one wants to try to find a vet or make an emergency run to the veterinarian during the Holiday.

Keep the number of a local veterinarian and they're covering doctors handy just in case of a pet emergency.