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How to Keep Your Pet Safe Around the Holidays
November 12, 2024
Tips for Pet Owners to Prepare for Holiday Festivities
For many families, the holiday season is one of the most wonderful times of the year. As you gear up for this year’s festivities, it’s important to keep your pet’s safety in mind. If you are planning to travel with your pet or host a party at your home, check out the following sections to learn some tips to ensure your furry companion stays happy and healthy.
Holiday Gatherings Can Be Overwhelming
While the holidays are a great time of the year to spend with family and friends, they can also be very stressful, even for your pet.
- Loud noisemakers and fireworks may cause your animal to feel anxious and scared. A great way to keep your pet calm and comfortable is to set up a quiet room or crate during holiday parties to ensure they have a safe place to go when they need a break.
- For those hosting guests, it’s important to inform visitors that you have a pet.
- Some of them may be allergic to cats and/or dogs.
- If your pet is not confined during the festivities, it’s important for your guests to show extra care when coming and going to ensure your furry friend doesn’t accidentally slip outside.
- You will also want to ensure that your guests know whether or not it’s okay for them to bring their own pets to the party.
Dangerous Decorations
When you’re planning on putting up decorations for the holiday season, think about how your furry companion may react.
- For those with a faux or real tree, securely anchoring it down will ensure it doesn’t tip or fall over.
- While you’re decorating the tree, put fragile ornaments at the top and more pet-friendly ones towards the bottom.
- Ornaments, sparkly tinsel, gingerbread houses, and popcorn garland may seem harmless, but your pet may think they’re a special toy or treat. If ingested, they can lead to major health issues.
- Some other poisonous and problematic holiday decorations include holly, mistletoe, poinsettias, and pine needles.
Skip the Table Scraps
As you’re preparing the holiday meal, laying food out on the table, and mingling with your guests, it’s important to ensure that your pet doesn’t sneak a bite while you’re distracted. You may also want to ask your guests to refrain from feeding your pet table scraps. Some foods that can be problematic include:
- Alcohol
- Bones: Can easily splinter and lead to serious health problems.
- Candy: Chocolate and any sweets including the sweetener Xylitol, are highly toxic to dogs and cats.
- Garlic
- Fruits: Keep any food containing citric acid away from your pet. Cherry pits, peach pits, and apple seeds can cause severe irritation and blockages if ingested.
- Coffee: Grounds, beans, and chocolate-covered expresso beans are toxic to pets.
- Nuts
- Onions
- Milk: Many cats and dogs can have difficulty digesting the lactose in milk, even in small amounts.
Our Animal Hospital is Here to Keep Your Pet Happy & Healthy this Holiday Season
It’s important to know that even if you do everything to ensure your pet is safe for the holidays, accidents can happen. Luckily, the team at Transit Animal Hospital is always here to help. Our animal clinic is equipped to provide prompt and quality emergency care when your pet needs it most.
If you have any questions about our business hours, feel free to reach out to a member of our team today. We’re proud to help keep pets across Cheektowaga, Clarence, Depew, Lancaster, Orchard Park, West Seneca, Williamsville, NY and the surrounding area safe throughout the holiday season!
Transit Animal Hospital provides pet vaccinations to the West Seneca, NY area. Click here to learn more about the difference between core and non-core pet vaccines!
Our animal hospital, Transit Animal Hospital offers spaying and neutering services for pet owners in and around the Depew, NY area. Contact us to make an appointment today!
Is your pet due for an annual pet check-up? Here is what you can expect when you visit Transit Animal Hospital for a pet exam.
The biggest reason why you should vaccinate your pet is for their health and safety. Like humans, vaccines protect them from getting sick and possibly passing from serious illnesses. But there are a few other benefits of pet vaccinations as well, which include: Protecting other pets - When humans are sick and they go hangout with other humans, illnesses are spread from person to person. The same is true for animals, which is why vaccines are important to stay up to date with. Pet vaccinations will protect your dog and other dogs, so it’s a no brainer. Get annual pet vaccinations for your animals! Saving money - Paying for your sick pet to stay at an animal hospital and get the necessary medication to treat their illness is much more expensive than pet vaccinations. Save yourself time and money by getting your pet vaccinated annually to prevent them from getting sick during the year. Needed for pet boarding - Pet vaccinations are needed for a pet to be boarded. Any unvaccinated pets will not be allowed to stay at a pet boarding facility. To avoid running into this issue when you want to travel and need to board your pet, get your pet vaccinated every year at their vet appointment. Contact our animal hospital for more information about pet vaccinations. We want to help you keep your pet and the other animals they meet safe. Our services are accessible to West Seneca, Lancaster, Williamsville, Clarence, Cheektowaga, Depew, and Orchard Park, NY.
When you start to consider bringing a cat into your home, an animal shelter is a great option to adopt from. There are many reasons to adopt from a shelter. Unfortunately, there are far more homeless cats than there are adoptive families and the ASPCA estimates that 3.2 million cats enter animal shelters every year, but most of them never get adopted. There are so many positives that a shelter cat can bring into your life. Saving a life – Any shelter cat needs a stable home. When you adopt a cat from a shelter, it also opens a space for the shelter and rescue groups to take in another cat, potentially leading to more saved lives. Save money – Most shelters will include spay/neuter surgery, vaccinations, and viral tests in your adoption fee. This saves a lot of money when getting a new cat, as doing these procedures and providing vaccinations at the vet can be very costly. It is also common that shelters will even include food, litter, accessories, and toys. Personality of the cat is known – Since the cats in many shelters will interact with their caretakers and volunteers every day, the cat’s true personality starts to come through. Particularly with adult cats, you can find a companion with the type of temperament that you may be looking for. Good for your mental health – When you own a cat or any other pet, it has been shown to have positive effects on humans ability to cope with stress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Adopting a cat from a shelter can improve your sense of happiness and general well-being. If you have any questions about adopting a shelter cat, please contact Transit Animal Hospital!
Taking care of your dog’s oral hygiene can make all the difference when it comes to their comfort and health. While there are several dental care options available to choose from, keep in mind that anything you can do to help prevent plaque and tartar accumulation will make the difference. It is best to consider the following when determining how important it is to take care of your dog’s teeth: Periodontal Disease – Just like humans, dogs experience plaque buildup. This leads to the accumulation of bacteria and tartar along the dog’s gumline. Eventually, this will cause gum irritation and inflammation. Your dog might start to experience tooth loss, bad breath, and oral pain. Overall Health – When bacteria caused by plaque doesn’t just stay in your dog’s mouth, it will start to travel to other parts of the body. A few of the organs that are affected by the bacteria caused by the dental disease are primarily the heart and kidneys. Baby Teeth – Dogs lose their baby teeth just like humans. If you are not taking care of your dog’s dental needs, this might make the process of losing baby teeth quite painful. When you take care of your dog’s teeth while they are still a puppy, you’re helping ensure that they will have better dental health throughout every stage of their life. Professional Dental Care is Expensive – It is common that most people let nature take its course and don’t do anything about their dog’s oral health. Over time, if a dental health concern arises, you’re going to have to pay for it. This could entail professional cleaning, x-rays, tooth extraction, or medications. This could also include anesthesia and antibiotics. If you take care of their teeth now, you’re setting your dog up for better health in the future. Better Breath – It is no surprise that we prefer our dogs with fresh breath. When you take care of your dog’s teeth, it means less plaque, leading to safer kisses from them, too! You don’t want to end up getting sick just because your dog wants to show you how much they love you. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your dog’s dental health, please give Transit Animal Hospital a call today!
Transit Animal Hospital
6020 Transit Road, Depew, NY 14043 | (716) 683-7136
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