For many Americans, the holiday season brings with it household decorations, large gatherings of people, and lots of food. While these aspects of the holiday season can be very entertaining for household dogs, they can also be hazardous to their health. Here are a few tips on how to keep your dogs safe this holiday season.
Keep food from falling to the ground.
If you host a family gathering, it's likely to involve quite a bit of delicious food. While many dogs enjoy the occasional table scrap, you have to be extremely careful that your guests don't inadvertently feed your dogs something dangerous. For example, chocolate can lead to vomiting, diarrhea, and even heart complications and seizures; fat trimmings from meat can cause pancreatitis; bones can get roughly chewed up and cause lacerations inside a dog's digestive tract; and almonds, walnuts, and pistachios can cause choking or digestive issues in dogs.
To keep people from intentionally feeding your dogs, simply announce that even though your dogs may seem like they're begging for food, they are not allowed to eat table food. To keep guests from spilling food and unintentionally feeding your dogs, help your guests stay tidy. Arrange your home so that every guest can sit at a table, and keep serving dishes at the table to prevent your guests from juggling a full plate of food as they find their seats.
Keep electrical cords out of a dog's reach.
Holiday lights and special decorations often come with long electrical cords. It's important to keep these electrical cords out of a dog's reach because they can easily get frayed from being chewed on. Once that live wire is exposed, your dogs could get electrocuted by touching the wire, resulting in whole body shock or burns and lacerations to the mouth area.
To keep cords away from your dogs, secure them with electrical tape or cord fasteners that can be pinned to your floors or walls. These days, electrical tape comes in a variety of colors, allowing you to incorporate festive colors to your space in an unconventional way. Also, make sure the cords run behind and under furniture as much as possible. If an electrical outlet or length of cord is still exposed, consider buying decorative baskets or over-sized gift boxes to block the cords from your dogs.
If your dogs do bite into something dangerous, whether food or an electrical cord, it's important to get immediate help. Emergency veterinarians, like Robert Irelan DVM, are on-call on evenings, weekends, and holidays, and they can arrange to meet you at their facilities, which are stocked with all the necessary equipment needed to treat your dog and nurse him or her back to health.
Share13 November 2014
Do you know the types of diseases that are most likely to cause death in dogs? My name is Anne, and I have owned several dogs in the my lifetime. I enjoy training, playing with, and caring for dogs of all sizes and breeds. Throughout my time as a dog owner, I have discovered that there are several illnesses that are common causes of death in dogs and that some breeds are more likely to get these diseases than other breeds. This blog will explain various common deadly diseases in dogs and give advice about how to prevent and treat these illnesses.
