Holiday Hazards Every Pet Parent Needs to Know—Straight from the Vet ER

The holidays are the busiest time of year for a veterinary ER. As a 20+ year vet ER tech, here’s the top hazards and safety precautions I wish all pet guardians knew to help keep their animal companions safe and out of the ER throughout the season!

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Hosting the holidays at your house

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This is where all the drama begins. Think about it. You know your pets and they know you. They do not know your twice-removed Aunt Sally or your office mate, Bob. Bottom line is they will behave differently around strangers. New faces in the house can cause anxiety for your pets, or they may see opportunities to take advantage. 

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Pets may dash out the front door while guests are arriving. Also, keep in mind that people who don’t have pets aren’t always in the habit of closing doors behind them. So, when Bob remembers to get the Christmas cookies from the car and leaves the garage door open, Whiskers or Chance might hit the streets. This is when the ‘hit by car’ emergency happens. 

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To avoid this catastrophe: Plan ahead.

If you have a particularly anxious pet with company, maybe close this friend into a bedroom during the get together and post “Pets Only Party. Do Not Disturb!” on the door. If you want your dog to join the party but think that door dashing is possible, think about using a crate, baby gates, a pen, an indoor tether, etc. to keep them safe. 

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Also, in case these pets get out and are lucky enough to not be injured, proper identification is their ticket home. 

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Did you know that more than half of the lost pets brought into my ERs had blank microchips? That’s right. Their chips were never registered! Many others had outdated information. If there’s no one to reach for a badly injured pet at an ER…well, let’s just not allow this to happen to you. Here’s what to do:

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• To find out, even if you’ve lost the paperwork, go to your vet, any veterinary clinic, or any shelter and have your pet’s microchip scanned. Take a picture of the number on the scanner’s screen. Then go to the AAHA Microchip Registry Lookup.‍
• There you can find the maker of the microchip, so you can register or update the chip information. You can also choose to register the chip with more than one company. Why? Some companies are staffed 24/7, while others are not. 
• Along with the microchip, all pets should have a tag or collar displaying current owner contact information so you can be easily reached. 
• Always have at least one picture of yourself with your pet, or keep veterinary records in case you ever need to reclaim your missing pet. 

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Visiting? Making the Rounds? Please don’t make this mistake!!

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I know that the holidays are a time of visiting, reconnecting with loved ones, and maybe making new connections with acquaintances. But for the love of all things, please don’t bring your dog with you to other people’s homes. If they have a dog or dogs, this is a perfect recipe for an awful attack. Animals take their territories and their people very seriously and to bring a dog into another dog’s house is a huge violation of dog rules. I have seen the consequences of this mistake and it is awful. Keep in mind too that most big vs. little dog attacks are not survived. 

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Food…So Much Food

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Combine the sudden availability of food everywhere in the house with the above unsuspecting or overly generous house guests and the temptation can be too much for any self-respecting dog (or cat sometimes!) Pets know when their people are distracted, when they can steal from a child’s plate, beg from a softie in the group, counter or trash surf, rob a purse of gum etc. And holidays are their big chance! Here are the top 10 ER food-related presentations around the holidays:

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1. Turkey. Nearly every year we see a dog that got the entire turkey. Sometimes it was raw, so add in the risk of salmonella poisoning. It contained all of its bones, so add the risk of foreign body obstruction, which may require surgery. Keep in mind that most vets won’t induce vomiting when the object swallowed may cause damage coming back up. Those bones become jagged and sharp when chewed. Then, the hope is that with some preventative treatment, the dog will pass the bones without any sharp ends cutting through the GI tract. If they do, this can lead to sepsis. At the very least we may be treating symptomatically for food bloat, and GI signs, but you’ll still have an ER bill to contend with. Don’t let your guests give bones to your pets either!

2. Chocolate. The darker the chocolate, the higher the percentage of cocoa, the more toxic it is. The size of the pet and the amount ingested are also important factors to determine toxicity. 
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3. Corn on the cob. Not toxic, but when guests casually leave the cobs lying around or in trash bags where dogs can access them, they become yummy potential foreign body obstructions.
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4. Unbaked dough or yeast. If your dog counter surfs the loaf of bread before it makes it into the oven, the bloating that results can be very dangerous. 
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5. Fried and fatty foods. Anything fatty, large amounts of human food, or anything pets are not used to eating can result in pancreatitis. This condition comes with vomiting, diarrhea, and lots of belly pain. It usually requires hospitalization to get them back on their feet. 
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6. Xylitol. It’s in many sugar-free gums (recall the purse robbing?) and people may use it as a sugar alternative in baking. It is highly toxic to dogs!! It does not take much to make their blood sugar crash and/or cause liver failure. 
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7. Cannabis brownies or cannabis used in any food recipe. Humans may know how to pace themselves with these food items, but dogs do not. And, as humans treat themselves to these spiked foods they tend to get a little less attentive to where they might leave leftovers. This is when the puppy comes in to finish off the plate, and ends up in the ER with cannabis toxicity. 

Since we’re on this topic, if you choose to partake in the devil’s lettuce (cannabis, weed, pot, Mary Jane, marijuana, etc) in any form please, please leave your pets out of that party. After seeing countless cases in the ER, I can tell you that it is never fun for them. They are terrified, if conscious, and don’t know what is happening to them. It is not a choice they can make and it is heartbreaking to see them in that state. 

8. Trash containers at parties. You may not think about how appealing these are to pets, but if they are in reach and contain food, you could end up with the trifecta of holiday ER presentations: Pancreatitis and/or food bloat, toxicity, and foreign body obstruction.
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9. Tinsel, ribbon, string lights (add burns) and tree decor. Okay. This is not food but try convincing a cat of this! They just love to chew and swallow long stringy objects, which is why they’re the poster children for linear foreign body obstructions. And if you thought we can just induce vomiting the way we can in dogs? Surprise! Even veterinarians struggle to get cats to vomit in the ER. So, it’s off to surgery if they’re unlucky enough to get one of these tricky obstructions.
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10. Batteries. Not food ya say? Tell that to many dogs. Dogs love to eat batteries. You’ve heard of dogs obsessed with chewing remote controls? They’re after the batteries. These can cause horrible tissue damage all through the GI tract if they’re chewed open. During the gift giving season, these tend to get placed on the floor under the tree- just within reach of your dog. Yes, they will definitely smell them through the packaging and wrapping job. Batteries will show up on an X-Ray but that means a trip to the ER! 

How to avoid these food-related dramas?

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Same rules as above about keeping pets away from risky situations. In a room away from the action may be best, at least during the main holiday meals. They might come through to meet everyone while on leash so they don’t leave your sight, or keep them in a safe, confined area. 

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Prevention Tips:

• Keep your trash under cabinets and out of reach of pets. 
• Store trash in pet-proof containers or cabinets.
• Rethink your holiday home decor. Is it pet friendly? Will it result in a $10,000 vet bill?
• No batteries under the tree where Rufus can decide to regift them to himself! He doesn’t know of the regrets to come! 

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If you plan to include alcohol in your party plans as host or hostess, it’s safest to just plan to put your pets away at the start of the party to avoid so many calamities. 

🚨 If your pet is exposed to a toxin, time is of the essence. Call one of the animal poison control hotlines right away. There are two main hotlines and both have consultation fees that are around $100. Don’t waste time trying to find a free one and if you decide to go to an ER right away, bring the packaging from the toxin or food item(s) with you and know that the ER will still have you call poison control upon arrival. 

‍PRO TIP: Always have an unopened, unexpired bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide at home in case poison control recommends inducing vomiting, and only if they recommend it. 

Emergency rooms are as scary for pets as they are for humans.

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Be sure that dogs are in harnesses that attach to a seatbelt in the car and cats and small dogs and in carriers restrained by the seatbelt’s shoulder strap or seat belt attachment. The two reasons are to keep them from becoming flying projectiles if your car stops short for any reason. They are usually much lighter than we are and can be seriously injured in these scenarios. Also, we don’t want pets darting into traffic when the car door is opened at the ER because they’re stressed and scared. Yes, this has happened too, unfortunately.  

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Oh and one last thing on the topic of holiday meals. As humans, we like to share meals with one another. We get together and eat in close proximity. The holiday meal is what brought us together and somehow bonds us. It is not the same for our pets. In fact, it could not be more opposite. 

So, at this time of lots of food and people, new people, and perhaps new furry friends in the picture too, please separate each pet behind a closed door at feeding time and then pick up their empty bowls.I promise the pets will feel better this way and you might avoid a trip to the ER!

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My gift to you this holiday season is the knowledge gained from everyone else’s mistakes… and of course, safe, happy, and healthy pets! Share this blog with your fellow pet parents to help everyone have a safe and happy holiday!

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