Thanksgiving is a wonderful time for family and friends to enjoy each other’s company and to partake in some great food. Beware though, because Thanksgiving can also create distress and an unsafe environment for our companion cats and dogs. During the holidays pets can be subject to undercooked food, pet-unfriendly flowers, and unattended alcoholic drinks.
Below are some tips to follow during the Thanksgiving holiday and during other festive times of the year.
- Delicious Turkey: Never give your pets un-cooked or undercooked turkey. Raw or undercooked turkey may contain salmonella. If you do decide to let your pets have turkey, make sure it is fully cooked and keep it to a small amount. Also, ensure that the turkey you provide does not have any bones that can be harmful to the digestive tracts of cats and dogs.
- Decorative Plants: Keep flowers and holiday plants out of your pet’s reach as some can be deadly to your pets. The ASPCA offers lists of plants that are toxic to both dogs and cats, but the safest route is simply to keep your pets away from all plants.
- Bread Dough: Don’t allow your pets to have access to raw bread dough. The yeast in raw bread dough will convert to alcohol during digestion resulting in bloated and impaired pets. This can cause a life-threatening condition in cats and dogs.
- Child Visitors: If you have children visiting your home during Thanksgiving, make sure they are supervised during all interactions with your pets. Many small children don’t know how to safely handle pets and this can put your cat or dog in an unsafe situation.
- Trash Can: Your trash can should allows be out of reach from your pets. As a Thanksgiving (and year round) safety measure, ensure that your trash can has a pet proof lid or is under a counter that is not accessible to your pets. There are lots of unsafe things that are put in the trash during Thanksgiving, for example, turkey carcasses and other discarded ‘people’ foods.
- Easy Escape: If you have lots of visitors during the holidays, your door is constantly being opened and closed. Make sure that your pets are kept away from outside entry doors during all times when you have many guests coming to visit.
Thanksgiving is a joyous time so the last thing you want is a sick dog, injured cat, or missing pet. Follow these tips and make the holidays safe for everyone, especially your pets.