The holidays can be safe for your pets, provided you take some steps to protect them from often hidden dangers that lurk on the table.
While overeating during the holidays may precipitate a “Maalox moment” for humans, it may result in an unexpected and expensive trip to the veterinary emergency room.
Even if you don’t end up at the emergency room with a pet, you may end up with a smelly mess. Unexpected dietary changes can lead to vomiting, diarrhea or worse.
In fact, the holiday season keeps Dr. Steve Hansen, veterinary toxicologist and director of the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center, and his staff very busy. I recommend that you keep their website (apcc.aspca.org) handy, not just at the holidays, but for any emergency that might arise. Here are the top holiday table-taboos:
Bones: Raw bones can contain bacteria and parasites, and cooked bones can splinter. As a veterinarian he’s had to take ham bones off a dog’s swollen tongue and round steak bones off a dog’s lower jaw, remove rib bones wedged between the upper teeth along the roof of the mouth, and have had turkey bone shards perforate a dog’s intestinal track causing internal trauma.
Fatty, rich foods: Giving these to dogs is dangerous, even life threatening, for them. These typically include fatty trimmings off the ham or roast, turkey skin, butter-coated potato skins, bread dough, nuts, and, of course, the gravy.
Dr. Ned F. Kuehn, chief of Internal Medicine Services, of Michigan Veterinary Specialists (michvet.com) says “Pancreatitis or inflammation of the pancreas is a serious disease and unfortunately common during the holidays. This potentially life-threatening disorder can occur when pets overeat or eat fatty foods resulting in pancreatic irritation. Signs include vomiting, anorexia and an extremely painful abdomen. Veterinary hospitalization is frequently required and often costly for dogs with pancreatitis.
Gastroenteritis or inflammation of the stomach and intestinal tract is even more common than pancreatitis. “The usual culprit is owners feeding their pets table food items which irritate the gastrointestinal tract,” Kuehn added. Vomiting and diarrhea are the typical symptoms.
Onions and raisins: Dana B. Farbman, CVT and senior manager, client and professional relations for the Animal Poison Control Center, warns holiday cooks about ordinary onions and those raisins sitting on the counter poised to enter a holiday dessert. Onions can potentially destroy pets’ red blood cells and inhibit the animal’s ability to coagulate blood. Raisin ingestion has been associated with gastrointestinal upset and acute renal failure in some dogs. Affected dogs may initially develop vomiting and drink large amounts of water, then develop diarrhea and potentially fatal kidney failure.
Alcohol: Even a small amount of alcohol can put a pet in grave danger, possibly resulting in gastrointestinal irritation, poor coordination, central nervous system depression, tremors, respiratory failure, acidosis, coma and death.
Yeast dough. Yeast-based dough cannot only expand in the gastrointestinal tract as it rises, causing an obstruction, the yeast can produce alcohol when it rises, possibly resulting in alcohol poisoning, as well.
