Keeping pets safe over the holidays

Writer: Dr Hilldidge Beer.

While we’re all looking forward to festooning our homes with festive decorations, enjoying meals with family and swimming when the weather gets too hot, these are all potential hazards to our pets.

A few simple holiday time precautions will keep your pets safe and save you that very expensive, and traumatic, trip to the emergency veterinary clinic.

• Keep decorations out of harm’s way. Puppies love to chew and what’s more fun than chewing a string of Christmas lights or tinsel? Aside from the nasty shock your pet may get from chewing through an electric cord, decorations like tinsel can potentially block your pet’s intestines which may necessitate surgery. Shards from broken baubles may injure paws or mouths.

• Avoid the mistletoe. Not because you don’t want to kiss the guy underneath it but because Christmas plants like mistletoe, the beautiful red poinsettia and holly are poisonous to pets. Keep them above chewing height.

Click below to read more. (The full article can be found on page 31)