Christmas Hazards for Your Dog and Cat

Christmas Hazards for Your Dog and Cat

Christmas is a festive occasion but it poses threats to pets like cats and dogs. This is due to the fact that the usual home environment is changed and there are sudden changes inside the house that could have a bad effect on the mood and safety of pets. For this reason, pet owners have to be extra vigilant and would have to take note of precautions that have to be done in order to make sure that pets will be safe during and even after the holidays.

Here are some of the common holiday dangers around the home, in understanding the dangers you can avoid harmful objects and incidences from happening to your beloved pet.

Food Dangers:

During the Christmas season, there would be an abundance of food like Chocolate, nuts, blue cheese, fruit cakes, puddings, mince pies, and onions. All of these can be toxic for dogs, even turkey bones can cause choking and constipation that can damage your dog’s intestines. For this reason, there is a need to tell visitors, especially children to avoid feeding dogs any unusual food from the Christmas feast.

Christmas trees and other decors

Christmas trees are low toxicity, but they may still cause a mild gastrointestinal upset that can lead to vomiting and diarrhea if chewed by dogs especially by puppies. Pine needles alone can get stuck in the paws of dogs, and this can cause them to feel irritated. In order to avoid this problem, it would be best to place the tree where dogs cannot reach them or to vacuum daily.

Christmas decorations are also dangerous to dogs, tinsels can be eaten by dogs and could cause blockage, and they have to be situated in an area of the house where dogs are not allowed or do not frequent. It would be best to keep them in another area in the house during the Christmas holidays, in order for dogs to avoid getting irritated by decorations or getting nasty shocks from electrical cables from Christmas lights.

Other decorations like mistletoe, poinsettia, and holly are also mildly toxic when ingested by dogs or cats and they have to be kept hidden from pets.
Extra caution has to be exerted in order to make sure that pets remain safe during the holidays.

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