Keeping your pets safe during the Christmas Holidays

I think the best thing about Christmas is walking into a room and looking at the beautiful Christmas tree filled with old and new memories in the way of how the ornaments are placed on the tree, how the tinsels and lights twinkle just perfectly.  I could sit in a chair, for hours, just watching the twinkling lights and not having a care in the world.  However, as beautiful as that tree may be, it is also a danger to our pets.  Cats love to bat at the ornaments and dogs with happy tails (straight, hard tails) cannot only knock over ornaments but the entire tree.  Here are just a few tips on keeping your tree and pet(s) safe during Christmas:

• Ornaments: Be careful when choosing your spot for the breakable ornaments.  The broken glass pieces can be very harmful to your pets and they can choke on the small pieces just as easily, possibly creating a blocking issue.  Helpful Hint:  Hang the lightweight, fabric, or felted ornaments on the lower branches that can withstand the occasional whack of a feline’s paw or a wagging tail.
• Tree Water: Do not allow your pets to drink out of this water.  It can contain types of pesticides, fertilizers, and preservatives.  For example some people may put aspirin in the water to keep it fresh, however, aspirin is toxic to pets.  Also, pine needle resin that drops into the water stand and dissolves is very toxic if your cat drinks it (see below). Helpful Hint: Use the tree skirt to cover up the stand to dissuade your pets from drinking it.
• Tinsel:  Who doesn’t love to decorate their tree with a lot of tinsel? Again, cats love to play with tinsel.  However, it can be very dangerous due to the risk of choking or worse, intestinal obstruction, which may require surgery.  Helpful Hint: Instead of hanging tinsel, try hanging a paper-mache chain rope (you remember, the kind we used to make in elementary school)
• Electrical Cords: Be careful in placing your electrical cords around the Christmas tree.  Train your pets not to chew on the cords.  Helpful Hint: Coat your cords with a bitter agent, bundle your cords neatly and tuck them under a blanket or better yet, use a cord cover.
• Pine Needles: Most people do not realize that pine needles are very toxic to their pet(s).  The pint tree resin contains oils toxic to cats.  The oils can cause damage to the cat’s liver.  The liver cannot produce the enzymes necessary to detoxify the substance.  Helpful Hint: Immediately clean up any pine needles that have fallen on the floor.
• Fire Retardant Trees: A tree that has been sprayed with fire retardant materials can cause thyroid disease in cats that digest it.  Helpful Hint: Some people like to cut their own Christmas tree and some families have made it a yearly tradition.  When purchasing a tree, ask the vendor if they have used the fire retardant materials on their trees and try to go with one that doesn’t.

Bottom Line: Use these helpful hints in keeping your pet(s) safe during Christmas.  There’s nothing worse while enjoying the holidays with your family, in which you find yourself scrambling looking up an emergency veterinarian hospital because your pet has an emergency due to eating something he/she shouldn’t have, ate through a cord, choked on glass or tinsel, etc.  As we always baby proof our homes, remember to pet proof your Christmas tree.  It will be more enjoyable for you and your pet(s)