Holidays With Pets

     Happy Holidays everyone, we’ve almost made it to the end of 2020 Hallelujah: For December’s blog I will be focusing on the dangers of the holiday. I was reminiscing on last year’s holiday blog having nostalgia when reading about my 3 chihuahuas.  So I’m sadly down to two yippie fur babies who both would love to dine at the family table, eating the family meal with everyone!  Needless to say, they spend a lot of time in their kennel when baking and family gathering is in progress.

     With the hustle and bustle of family gatherings and traditional cooking, it’s very easy to lose track of what the family dog could or could not have gotten into when they start showing signs of illness.  There is usually that one relative/friend that can’t resist giving scraps to the family dog on the sly.  Or there is always that sneaky dog that always unnoticeably gets into the trash full of dead carcass remains. So basically I completely understand the rush visits to the local vet and I personally deal with that holiday, oops working at a vet clinic. 

     Some holiday hazards for the common household pet consists of:

1. Chocolates and candy: The danger and toxicity in chocolate depend on the type and how much was consumed.  The darker the chocolate the higher the toxicity levels.  Depending on the amount and type, your pet can experience zero to slight symptoms i.e. hyperactivity slight GI upsetness vomiting, and diarrhea to as severe as extreme dehydration, seizures, and even death. 
2. Alcohol: Tis the season to be merry and drink.  We all know there are dogs out there that will investigate and consume anything sold or liquid so be careful when you know the family lab is just that pet.  Alcohol can affect them the same as people and they can suffer from alcohol poisoning as well. 
3. Christmas Tree water/ornaments/tinsel:  Tree water that has additives or possibly pesticides when buying it can be very harmful to pets, ornaments that are glass and hung low on the tree are very tempting to playful cats and puppies.  Broken glass can cause cuts especially when they decide to chew on the ornament.  Tinsel is very tempting for the curious cat put when any string-like object is chewed and swallowed by cats it causes the intestines to bunch up around the tinsel and cause an obstruction.  Very fatal if not surgically removed. 
4. Fatty food scraps and bones in the trash: These are big time anytime pet hazard but around the holidays it’s worse for obvious resons, gathering of family and friends, extra baking and cooking.  So what do these more increased activities have the harmful potential of doing?   Fatty meat trimmings,gravy,and other rich foods can activate pancreatic enzymes to cause severe pancreatitis.  Symptomes of this include vomiting, abdominal pain. Which can lead to dehydration and even death.  Bones and large wrappings of foil or anything with the remnence of tantalizing flavors can cause extreme dangerous obstructions.  What is an obstruction and what does it do?  An obstruction is a blockage, and weather it happens in the stomach or small intestine it is very life threatening.  A full obstruction will cause blood loss to surrounding tissues and then necrosis (death) to those tissues which can lead to perforation, sepsis and death.  Your pet will experience vomiting, inappitence, lethargy, inability to have a bowel movement, simply if nothing can get past that blockage then nothing will come out the other end.  The severity of full blockages are nothing to trifle with or play the wait and see game.  
5. Over the counter meds or medicinal: Our pets are netoriouse for eating owners meds whether it is a jar of aspirin or a jar of pot gummies we have seen and delt with it all.  It’s always amusing yet frustrating when Owners refuse to be honest about their pets potential expose to marijuana.  Let me say this LOUD and CLEAR,  We don’t care that you have or consume Cannibus and we are not going to report anything to anyone.  We need to know if there is a possibility that your pet consumed pot inorder to help guild the treatment. Once again I have seen cases of ingested meds from the pets own NSAIDS (antiinflamitories) to pot brownies where the pet just needed a little diagnostics and minimal treatments to having to save it’s life with extreame hospitalization.  

     Hope that wasn’t to overwhelming.  Things happen, even to the most conscientious of pet owners so just do the right thing and get your pet medical attention when signs of illness are present. 

Thanks For Reading 

Heidi Parker