Although All Creatures Veterinary Clinic & Lodge is best known for their veterinary services, they’re happy to offer pet safety tips for those pet owners throughout the Orrville, Ohio area and beyond. As part of holiday pet wellness, these tips will help pet owners like you keep your Wadsworth, Ohio or Barberton, Ohio pet safe during the festivities at your residence.
The following holiday pet safety tips can be used to help keep your Barberton, Wadsworth, or Orrville area pet safe while you spend time with family and friends this holiday season:
1. Wrapped Presents
One thing many pet owners don’t realize is that gifts are a surprising source of toxicities during the holidays. If you are going to wrap food products like chocolate, dog treats, or dog toys as part of your festivities, remember to keep them in a safe place and well out of your pet’s reach until they are ready to be opened. Because our pets have a keen sense of smell, they may want to unwrap these presents ahead of time. In turn, they may attempt to eat the contents of these packages which can cause them to fall ill.
2. Snow Globes
Snow globes are great to look at, but some contain ethylene glycol, a highly toxic substance to all pets. If a snow globe happens to break, the sweet smell can attract a pet to lick it up, leading to a potentially fatal intoxication. For this reason and more, snow globes should be kept out of reach of your pets.
3. Holiday Food
Our pets love holiday food as much as we do, and they’re not often afraid to take it off the table or counter when you’re not looking. Because some of the ingredients of our meals are not pet friendly, it’s important to make sure you keep your pet away from food preparation areas or places where food will be left out. Some of the more concerning food items your pet could be exposed to during the holidays are chocolate, bread dough, fruitcake and alcohol.
4. Medication
During the holiday season, a variety of guests will be visiting your home. Unfortunately, this is the time we definitely need to focus on holiday pet wellness. This is because our pets often attempt to get into medications that friends or family have brought with them. Luckily, exposure to these items can be prevented with a advance planning. Often, guests who are not used to having pets in the house can often be unaware of how curious they can be. Because of their curiosity, pets will often investigate suitcases and can get into pill vials or weekly pill minders. In order to avoid emergency veterinary services, have your visitors put their medication in a closed cabinet that is not accessible to your pets and ask that they take it behind a closed door. That way, if a pill is dropped, it can be found before a pet ingests it. A prewritten list of the names, milligram strength, and number of pills that visitors have brought is also a very useful thing to have in case a medication is accidentally ingested by your pet.
5. Salt
Ice melt, homemade play dough, and salt-dough ornaments (even when dry) can all be a tempting salty treat for pets to get into. However, these products can cause life-threatening imbalances in the electrolytes and should be kept from their reach at all times.
Pet owners in the Barberton, Ohio and surrounding areas should, of course, contact their local veterinary professional or the Animal Poison Control Center if their pets get into any of these substances. The sooner emergency veterinary services are provided, the higher the chance that your pet can be saved. By following these pet safety tips, holiday pet wellness won’t have to be a concern. Instead, you’ll be able to spend time with your family members and friends in the Wadsworth, Ohio area without worry. If you’re from the Orrville, Ohio area and would like to learn more about All Creatures Veterinary Clinic & Lodge and the services they provide, visit www.acvet.net or call one of their physical locations today!
All Creatures Veterinary Clinic & Lodge
www.acvet.net
12545 Sheets Rd
Rittman, OH 44720
330.925.4910
249 High St.
Wadsworth, OH 44281
330.334.1677