Thanksgiving is a special holiday celebrating family, friends, and a holiday feast! While our furry friends may want some of our delicious goodies, they won’t be thankful for the stomach ache our food and pet-unfriendly floral arrangements may cause. Follow these helpful Prytania Vet tips and tricks on how to avoid potential holiday hazards!
While delicious, our traditional main course can cause our Prytania Pet some dietary distress. The turkey bones can be choking hazards as well as run the risk of splintering and causing punctures in the digestive tract. Also,high fat foods such as turkey skins can lead to pancreatitis. And while turkey is fine and dandy to give to your pet, some of our favorite seasonings are not! Onions and chives are toxic to dogs and cats and we’d recommend avoiding garlic too because in large quantities, it can cause GI upset.
And during meal prep, please don’t give your Prytania Pet any raw yeast dough! If your pet eats raw dough, please bring them to Medvet (or any emergency veterinary hospital). After ingested, the yeast will continue to convert the sugars in the dough into carbon dioxide and alcohol, which can cause many life threatening emergencies. The carbon dioxide can cause your pet’s stomach to expand and bloat leading to gastric-dilatation volvulus (aka “Bloat”), a deadly GI emergency most commonly seen in dogs. The alcohol in the fermentation process (and all alcohol in general so keep the drinks away from your pet please!) can cause dangerous drops in blood sugar, blood pressure, and body temperature. Intoxicated pets can experience seizures and respiratory failure.
Thanksgiving day decor are beautiful and festive. Sadly, some of our favorite flowers are deadly for our furry friends; some deadly plants are Amaryllis, Baby’s Breath, lilies, hydrangeas, some ferns, the list goes on! For a more detailed list, click here toxic plants for cats and toxic plants for dogs.
Delicious desserts are highlight of any thanksgiving feast but unfortunately, our Prytania Pets can get sick from our perennial favorites. Keep your pet away from any raw batter — with raw eggs as a main ingredient there is a risk of salmonella. Chocolate, grapes, and raisins are all toxic to dogs. Like chocolate, coffee and other caffeinated treats are dangerous for your Prytania Pet too.
And please avoid giving your pet any nuts! Nuts, such as almonds, pecans, and walnuts, contain high amounts of oils and fats; these fats can cause vomiting and diarrhea, and potentially pancreatitis in pets. Macadamia nuts in particular can cause weakness, depression, vomiting, tremors and hyperthermia in dogs. Xylitol, found in sugar free desserts and gum, is also toxic to dogs so keep all sugar free desserts away from your pup!
While our Thanksgiving feast has it’s hazards, at the end of the day Thanksgiving is about celebrating what we’re thankful for with our loved ones. Here at Prytania Vet, we’re thankful for our Prytania Vet family, so please give your Prytania Pet some snuggles from us!