Outside Dangers to Your Pets

Many pet owners know that a small amount of antifreeze can kill their pet. Not to mention outside plants, such as tomato plants, that are poisonous. But there are other dangers lurking outside that are often overlooked.

Sometimes cats will crawl under your vehicle and keep going up until they are under the hood. The problem is that you don't know this until you've started your vehicle. I've heard of this happening to a few people's cats. In each situation, the cat either died or needed a lot of stitches.

Another problem is items with a small opening laying in the yard. When I was a little kid, I remember seeing a cat with a mayonnaise jar stuck on its head. But that was nothing for us to get off compared to the cat with his head stuck in a birdhouse and surrounded by briars. I had to crawl through an opening in the briars and drag the birdhouse out. And his head was really wedged in the opening too.

Other animals are more of a danger to your pets than some people realize. Hunting dogs will go after cats. They will also pick fights with your dogs. And sometimes, wild animals are a problem too. Many years ago, I had a problem of opossums coming to eat when I hollered for my cats to come. My cats would just sit there and watch them eat their food. But sometimes, the cats would get to fighting with them.

It's nice to think if you ever had to put up with your neighbors' pets in your yard that they'd do the same for you. I'll never forget the day when one of my cats came home and had been shot. I took the cat to the veterinarian. My problems only worsened when the cat bit the lady assisting the vet. Being concerned about rabies, the vet's office tried saying that the law required them to keep the cat because of the incident. That wasn't the law in this state back when this happened. It took a call to the health department to have my cat released into my care. And then the health department had to come every so often for surprise visits to make sure that the cat didn't have rabies. Of course he didn't since rabies isn't transmitted by guns. The new vet that I took the cat to suggested at one point to put him to sleep because his temperature kept running up really high from the infection. My cat was lucky to have lived through the experience. You really can't trust your pet to stay in your yard, and it's at everyone's mercy when running loose.

Having a dog in a fenced enclosure seems like the best plan since pets shouldn't be running loose. However, make certain that you keep your dog's nails trimmed as the dog can get them hung on the fence. Also, tags dangling on a dog's collar are a risk too because they can get hung on the fence and/or on the tags on the collar. It's best to attach tags directly to the collar rather than have the tags dangling. This may sound over-cautious, but I've had this happen to my dog. My dog was all right because I saw it happen and quickly saved him. But if left long enough without being able to reach food and water, the dog would die.

Having a pet is a big responsibility. The best choice is to have your pet stay in the house with you. Just keep in mind that there are dangers to your pet's life everywhere. Please see my other article about unexpected household dangers to your pet for more information.