5 Holiday Dangers to Your Pet 

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5 Holiday Dangers to Your Pet 

 The 2022 holiday season is in full swing! With it comes hosting fabulous holiday parties, spending time with family and friends, watching Christmas movies, singing Christmas carols, and eating delicious food. As much fun as the holiday season can be, it also can be a very dangerous time for our beloved furry-friends of the family. Are you well prepared to keep your pets safe this holiday season? Keep reading to see 5 must know holiday dangers to your pet! 

 Hosting a Holiday Party  

Having a lot of family and friends over to celebrate the holidays can be really fun. However, your cat or dog might not necessarily see it that way. Some pets do not like “strangers” coming into the home, or loud laughter and noise. They can get anxious and stressed when this happens, just as humans can. If they feel like their territory is being invaded, they can get defensive and attack guests.  

Luckily, there are many great tips for hosting with pets that you can utilize to help keep them calm, stress free, and safe. For starters, plan ahead! If your pet generally doesn’t like guests, create a warm and quiet space for them that is secluded from guests. Make sure to check up on them throughout the party. If your pet is great with people, then you can encourage your cat or dog to meet some of the guests, but don’t force it. As a last reminder, make sure your guests don’t feed your pet human food, as they could accidentally poison your furry-friend.  

Presents  

Presents and gift wrapping can also be dangerous to pets. After all, they are very curious creatures, and they will want to inspect, sniff, scratch, and dig their paws into anything they can. 

When wrapping gifts, try to avoid using glue and other adhesive materials, as it’s toxic to pets if consumed. Moreover, if you have a curious cat or dog, then you should stay away from string or ribbons. If your furry-friend eats these, it could cause intestinal obstruction. Lastly, certain wrapping papers contain harmful chemicals, so be sure to check before buying.  

You should also use common sense when placing items under your Christmas tree. If you have gifts that are dangerous, toxic, or tempting to pets, make sure you put them somewhere out of the reach of your cat or dog.  

Christmas Tree  

There is nothing that screams it’s the holiday season more than setting up the Christmas tree! However, you do need to consider potential Christmas tree dangers to your pet to keep your furry-friends safe.  

One of the most common questions asked each holiday season is, “can my pet consume the Christmas tree water?”. In short, no! This is because most Christmas trees are laced with chemical preservatives to keep your tree fresh longer. These leak into the water at the tree trunk and make it poisonous to pets. With that said, make sure the base of your Christmas tree is covered, so your furry-friends can’t get into the water.  

Likewise, Christmas tree lights, ornaments, and tinsel are extremely dangerous, especially for cats. Make sure your cat doesn’t climb the tree to chew lights, which can result in long-term mouth injuries. Keep your cat out of the tree so they don’t break ornaments, too. Stepping on broken ornaments can instantaneously mean a trip to the vet. As for tinsel, your pet can easily suffer from intestinal obstruction if it is consumed. 

 Holiday Food  

Another holiday danger all pet parents want to look out for is holiday food. As hard as it may be, don’t let anyone, including yourself, feed your four-legged friend table scraps. There is a plethora of holiday food that is meant for people, not pets! Make sure your pet doesn’t consume chocolate or any holiday desserts, any kind of nut, caffeine, turkey or chicken skin, or poultry bones! In addition, do not serve your cat or dog any alcohol. Giving your pet any amount of alcohol can cause severe damage to their liver and brain.  

Take your pet to the vet immediately if they ingest any poisonous or toxic food. You might want to even prepare for sudden holiday emergency vet visits by looking into pet insurance. Seeing what is pet insurance and how does it work will prepare you for any emergency care that your cat or dog will need if they do need to go to the emergency vet hospital due to consumed toxic food, ribbon, etc. Ultimately, the last thing you want to worry about is paying for expensive vet bills when your pet needs medical attention.  

Cold Weather  

One final danger you need to be aware of for your pet this holiday season is colder weather. Like us, our furry-friends get cold when outside this time of year. If you tend to let your pet outside alone, make sure to only keep them outside for a few minutes. Similarly, if you decide to take your four-legged friend on longer walks in the winter, make sure they are dressed appropriately. There are so many great winter apparel items, like cat and dog jackets, warm boots, and so on that will help keep your furry-friend warm this winter.  

There are so many fun and exciting things to do this holiday season! Have fun, but make sure to take these common pet holiday dangers into consideration when enjoying the festivities. The last thing you want is to celebrate the holidays with an injured or sick pet.