Hello Animal Radians, it’s Robert Semrow, your pet world insider here with this weeks Animal Radio List – and it’s an important list because these 5 holiday traditions that can land your pet on the naughty list and you at the vets office. We here at Animal Radio truly want you to enjoy the holidays and all that this special season has to offer. However we have some helpful reminders for pet parents. Decking the halls with boughs of holly can be very poisonous to our pets, so you may want to skip that tradition all together and just stick to Fa La La La Las…
- Mistletoe and Holly make for great songs and imagery during the Christmas holidays, but if ingested by dogs and cats these can cause some severe issues so make sure that if you are going to use them, you do so with care and vigilance and check daily to make sure they are still where you placed them and they haven’t gone missing.
- Christmas Trees are holiday tradition for most and I know that brings with it, several things that responsible pet parents must take in to consideration. Let’s start at the bottom – The water reservoir is sooo tempting for most dogs. The problem is that the water may contain bacteria, additives and other preservatives used to keep the tree fresher longer which can cause problems for our pets. One simple solution may be to put a small amount of chicken wire or screen over the opening of the water basin. It allows you to check and fill the water, but keeps your pets safe.
- Ornaments make the Christmas tree something to remember – Who doesn’t love to stand back and admire the beautiful ornaments. Unfortunately, for our pets, this can be very tempting. They see what often appears to be “New Toys To Play With” hanging on branches that they can reach with relatively little effort. So be sure to have an ever watchful eye on the ornaments, especially those on lower and easier to reach branches. And if you have glass ornaments, be extra vigilant as they can fall and break causing additional dangers for our pets.
- Speaking of sparkling Christmas trees, let’s not forget Christmas lights…these blinking and flashing lights add beauty to the tree and raise the curiosity level, especially for cats. So again be sure to keep these off easier to reach branches and as always, watch and see how your pets react to these new introductions to their environments. They are going to be curious, the bigger concern is where and what that curiosity leads to. If you see them engaging the tree to get at ornaments or lights or even the water reservoir at the bottom….redirect them and make sure they know that it’s to look at, not paw at or chew. As I tell my dogs Sugar and Zoey – We look with our eyes, not with our mouths and paws….
- Potpourris and candles can certainly set the mood with wonderful scents. However, use caution when doing it with pets in the home. Remember our pets have much higher smelling ability and this increase in unique scents will definitely raise their awareness and incite investigation in to what can present danger for our beloved four legged friends.
We here at Animal Radio hope to enjoy the holidays and decorate to your hearts content, just do it with an eye toward the safety of your pets. Let’s not find our pets on the naughty list and find ourselves at the vets office for something avoidable this holiday season.
