Holiday Pet Safety Tips

The Christmas holiday season is upon us and can be both a very joyous and stressful time for both us and our furry family.  Here are a few tips to ensure your pets are safe and comfortable and can enjoy the season.

If you are having friends or family come to your home to celebrate ensure that you make them aware how to approach and interact with your pets.  For example, let people know if your pets don’t like certain parts of their bodies touched or if your pets are shy and prefer to approach people when they are ready rather than be approached.

Ensure pets are comfortable by following these tips:

• Exercise your pets before guests arrive
• Set them up a comfortable spot where they can escape the noise of chatter, present unwrapping or popping crackers
• A good safe space for them to escape could be in a quiet room or corner
• Make sure pets always have a way to move to their safe space
• Put their bed in the safe space and give them familiar objects such as toys or treats
• Play soft calming music in this space

If you decorate your house, make sure decorations are pet safe by:

• Making sure you don’t have any poisonous plants such as lilies, poinsettias, and mistletoe in reach
• Avoid glass or breakable ornaments as they can be knocked off and can break in pets’ mouths causing severe injuries
• Keep tinsel, bows, and ribbons out of reach. If ingested by pets they can block intestines
• After unwrapping presents make sure papers, ribbons are put away out of reach
• Anchor Christmas trees so they cannot be knocked over
• Keep electrical lights and cords out of reach so they can’t be chewed and cause an electrical shock

Make sure that pets don’t enjoy too many of your Christmas treats:

• Ask friends/family to let you know if any packages or gifts include chocolates so that you don’t put them under the tree. Dogs have good sense of smell and will try to break into them, and chocolate is poisonous for your dog.
• Don’t feed table scraps of fatty foods to your pets as they may cause upset stoaches or pancreatitis. Some specific dangers foods are alcohol, avocado, chocolate, mince pies, Christmas pudding, coffee, cooked bones, currants, fruit cake, grapes, gravy, ham, lollies, macadamia nuts, marinades, onion, pork, raisins or sugarless gum.
• Don’t hang edible decorations such as popcorn garlands or candy canes on the tree as they provide unnecessary temptations and may cause pets to knock over the tree

Ensure your pets don’t miss out on all the fun by creating some treats especially for them and either create a treat treasure hunt or put some treats in a Kong.  Play special games with them that they enjoy!

Remember that if you have travel plans over Christmas to contact us as soon as possible to make sure we can fit your pets into our schedule.   We are booking up fast so give us a call today!

PET TIPS for the ‘party season’

Summer and the festive season are here. They bring all sorts of delights including luscious food, lazy days and sunny rays and celebrations with loved ones.

However, it is important to be aware that they also bring risks to our beloved fur babies.

Most of us know that overindulgence is common.   

RICH FOODS

You may think that you’re treating your pet when you share a bit of the Christmas ham. Remember that your best friend’s tolerance for rich and sometimes fatty foods is much lower than ours. It can increase the risk of contacting pancreatitis. It is often a sudden, severe and painful illness that can come from your fur kids overdoing it on leftovers and raiding the bins. Keep your bins well sealed and out of reach. High fat meats are especially dangerous for dogs- so the Christmas trimmings and fat are off the menu.

POISONOUS FOODS

Onion and garlic are poisonous for dogs and cats and macadamia nuts are often associated with toxicity and diarrhoea in dogs. Chocolate should never be shared with them- it is lethal. Raisins, grapes and sultanas often found in fruit cakes and mince pies are toxic and off the menu.

NOISE

Celebrations are an integral part of the end of the year. Night’s like New Year’s Eve can be one of the greatest party nights of the year-for humans. For our pets, they can be times of strange noises and lights.

Best to keep them indoors during fireworks displays and the noise and commotion of social events. A comfortable, familiar space in the family home, a cardboard box with a towel cover etc will help make them feel safe and secure and more at ease. Cats will often hide during noisy events and will emerge when things quieten down. Dogs can benefit from other measures too (if you are out – try putting on the television or some music to mask the noise from outside) Their hearing is several times as sensitive as humans!

VISITORS

While our fur babies enjoy the limelight that come wit their human’s social events, some do not deal well with extra attention. Ensure you can allow them to escape from the mayhem to a safe area. Also make sure visitors know that they should not feed your pets.

THE HOME ENVIRONMENT

It is a great time too to make sure your pet is unable to escape through any openings in their environment.  While they us unreservedly, they have a sense of curiosity which could lead them to wander. This is especially likely around times such as New Year’s Eve where strange sounds, vibrations, smells and lights can confuse them and cause their flee instinct to kick in. They can panic and flee. While you have taken all the steps to make sure this does not happen, make sure your pet is microchipped and details are up to date. 

An idea for preventing bad reactions is to plan a reasonably long walk, make sure they are fed properly at the correct time for them. A tired and well-fed fur baby may be less likely to get anxious.

FLEAS + TICKS

During the summer, ticks and fleas are at their worst so make sure your pets’ treatments are up to date. Tick paralysis can be fatal. If you are travelling with your pets always check if where you are going is a tick hot spot.  

SMALL PETS

Do remember that your small pets such as rabbits, guinea pigs and other small pets are not immune to the sounds and lights of nights such as New Year’s Eve. Apply many of the same tips to keep them feeling comfortable safely home in their living space with plenty of food and water.

If you have any concerns, it is always a great idea to talk to your vet who knows your pets … and have a safe and wonderful party season full of fun with your furry friends and family!

x Jenny