10 Holiday Pet Safety Tips

A great holiday season means that everyone is happy and healthy, including your pets!  We’ve got 10 tips to help keep them safe in the weeks ahead.

Holiday meals/celebrations:

Serving turkey?  No bones to the pets!  They can be a dangerous choking and digestive hazard.

Advise your family members to not feed your dog any scraps to avoid digestive upset.

If you’re celebrating New Year's, skip the confetti (could be digested with disastrous results).  Poppers are loud and can scare pets.

As always, chocolate is a big no-no for pets, and holidays often mean sweets are laying around unattended.

Be sure to secure trash bin covers.

Decorations:

If you have a real Christmas tree, prevent pets from drinking the water at the base of the tree (a breeding ground for bacteria).

Skip the tinsel.  It’s super attractive to cats who can ingest it, then have serious digestive problems.  Edible ornaments like popcorn or cranberry strings should also be avoided.

Consider metal or plastic ornaments that won’t get knocked off the tree by a curious cat or a wagging dog tail and shatter into sharp little pieces.

Keep mistletoe, holly and poinsettias away from pets.  Holly can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea when ingested, and mistletoe can produce gastrointestinal upset and heart issues.  Poinsettias also have their dangers for pets.

Lit candles should never be unattended.  Pets can burn themselves or knock them over, starting a fire.  Likewise, be sure your fireplaces have screens in front of them.