Spring Cleaning the Toy Box? Make sure your pet’s toys are safe and healthy for them.
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ost pets love to play with a toy and both cats and dogs benefit from playing with toys. Appropriate toys help keep their teeth and gums healthy, provide exercise and relieve stress. However, the wrong toys or worn out toys can cause dental problems, blockages, and other potentially lethal problems. Spring is a great time to take stock of your pet’s toys and make sure they have a year of safe play. But that’s not a toy! Many times pets play with things that are not designed for that purpose. Here are 2 examples of household items that are actually very dangerous for pets. Dogs often mistake pill bottles for toys. In fact ingestion of pharmaceuticals is the most common emergency call to Pet Poison Control centers. So, of course, all medications should be kept far away from your pets reach. Cats usually love to play with any type of string, yarn or ribbon. These can have deadly consequences as felines often
swallow these. Once these “linear foreign bodies” reach their intestines they cut into the delicate lining causing serious damage. Without rapid surgical intervention, many cats do not survive. Curtain and shade pulls should be knotted up so they are out of reach, and all yarn, string, and ribbon should be kept out of sight. Children’s toys such as dolls, balls and stuffed animals are all appealing to dogs and may be small or destructible enough to cause trouble. Clothing such as socks, underwear, and towels are also common causes of trouble for dogs. Basically, if it smells, squeaks, rattles or rolls your pup might say “It’s a toy!!” For cats-if it moves its fair game (literally). One more warning about medications. Although Ali is being very helpful by reminding us to give her heartworm prevention medication, she should NOT have access to veterinary pharmaceuticals either. Obviously, they are often flavored to appeal to pets and consuming higher than the recommended dose can be dangerous. Dental Chew Toys-What works? And what is safe? There are so many dental products that it is hard to know which ones are effective. Fortunately, there is a whole group of board-certified veterinary dentists to figure that out for us. The Veterinary Oral Health Council evaluates all dental products including chew toys. Look for the VOHC seal of approval to decide if a dental product is safe AND efficacious. There is an extensive list on their website: vohc.org.
10 4 Legs & a Tail
Spring 2020
