Every year around the holiday season veterinary offices get busy with emergency phone calls from canine and feline guardians. By far the most common phone calls we receive are around their dog or cat eating too much holiday turkey or other holiday foods and desserts. It’s important that pet owners know that chocolate and other sweet ingredients can be very toxic to dogs and cats.
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While I’ve always encouraged my clients to feed their pets a healthy, balanced home made diet using recipes from reliable sources, the feeding of fatty table scraps, especially in animals with sensitive digestive tracts, or pre-existing histories of digestive tract upset, can lead to disorders including acute gastroenteritis and even pancreatitis. This can show clinical signs of vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration or loss of appetite. |
If an animal is already used to a fixed formula commercial pet food diet every day, and their diet suddenly changes during the holiday season without a gradual transition, this is the most common scenario that can lead to digestion problems in pets. If this should occur, fasting a pet for 24 to 48 hours offering only liquids and/or broth, as well as using natural at home remedies such as slippery elm can often help. Pepcid AC at dose of one half mg per pound, once to twice daily can also help with sour stomachs some vomiting.
After 24 to 48 hours, introducing bland hamburger and/or rice diets and continuing slippery elm or Pepcid AC is often enough to resolve simple upset digestive tracts. NaturVet Enzyme and Probiotics from 1800PetMeds is great to have around and to add to the bland diets during recovery and even long term to strengthen the gut immune system. However, if increased lethargy or loss of bodily fluids persists or worsens (through increased vomiting and diarrhea) an immediate veterinary assessment should be done to avoid dehydration, especially in the very young and senior pets.
Another common dietary situation seen this time of year is in pets that literally raid the trash containing left over holiday meals and deserts, as well as pets that go after the indigestible items including gift wrapping paper, ribbons, tinsel, Poinsettia plants, etc. Even some of the common gifts and items left under the holiday tree, such as holiday gifts for both people and pets, including the terrific squeaky Squiggler Santa, Loofa Santa, Bungee Loofa, and Cat Nip Hedgehogs available at PetMeds® need to be offered under human supervision.
We also must not forget to keep our pets warm this time of year, especially as winter bears down on us. Outside pets including cats should be allowed access to adequate warm shelter in case the winter weather turns brutally cold. One of the more common freak accidents this time of year involve cats seeking warmth under the hood of the car, which can lead to disastrous consequences if the cat falls asleep in this area. Especially smaller toy breed dogs should be adequately covered with small jackets to help keep them warm in the colder weather, as they tend to lose body heat rapidly.
Also, it is not uncommon to see an occasional case of frostbite in our pets. As people prepare their cars for the colder winter months, they must also be careful not to leave around open cans of antifreeze. Antifreeze is often very tasty to curious dogs and cats, and can lead to acute digestive upset and life threatening kidney failure. As the weather gets colder, outside small mammals such as mice and rats may take shelter in our homes, and while our cats and dogs can help keep these populations down, we must be extra careful not to leave out rodenticide traps that can not only can be toxic to dogs and cats, but in pets that happen to ingest a rodent that has consumed some of the bait from these poisons. Thus, while the holiday season is a very special time of year for the whole family, it is important to be vigilant in monitoring our animals for these potential risks during the holiday and winter seasons.
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