Holiday Hazards For Your Pets  

Cats are particularly prone to a lot of the troubles that can occur during the festive seasons. For example, cats are very sensitive to pine oils. They act as severe digestive irritants. So if you celebrate Christmas and do the traditional tree in a stand with some water added beware of any feline using it as a drinking fountain. Soon your "Fluffy" will be vomiting if s/he prefers the tree water to the water bowl provided.

You can cover the tree stand in aluminum foil which will make noises cats don't like if messed with and then put a decorative cover over that for aesthetics.

The other digestive irritant around during this season is Poinsettas. Do not let your pets chew on them as treats. Keep them high away form animals. For cats, get them some "kitty grass" from your local pet store for plant and fiber fun.

Another digestive disaster is ribbon (or anything string-like for that matter}. Cats have a rough tongue and when they play with such long thin objects they get stuck on the tongue. The next thing you know the ribbon or string is being swallowed against your pet's desires. Once into the gut it can literally tie up the intestnes and even cut through them which is life threatening. This is also true of the tinsel put on trees for decoration. Best thing is don't decorate with either ribbon ot tinsel. If by chance some gets into your house and into your cat's mouth, remove it immediately! If swallowed. call a veterinarian as soon as you notice it. Sometimes it can be retrieved with an endoscope (a long flexible scope with visual and retrieval abilities) versus having to do full blown surgery.

Of course, over eating anything especially treats from the table is bad for pets. This is especially true of high fat or high salt items (Ham is a perfect example of that.). Please, also, see the article on chocolate toxicity on the webpage if you didn't get and read last months newsletter.

If your pet starts to vomit during this time of year, call your veterinarian immediately. Also, take note and tell your doctor if your pet has eaten any of the above. It will help your doctor and your pet. Please don't wait to see if it gets better as some of the above are life threatening.

Recommended entertainment: A classic as soon as it was released, "The Lion King". The story of triumph over loss and supression to restore balance and prosperity in life. Note how well the "Antisocial personality" is shown in the character "Scar". See https://www.scientologyhandbook.org/SH11.HTM for full description of such personalitites and how to handle them-vital data for everyone to survive well.

Best wishes for the holidays whichever one you celebrate or even if you don't but just enjoy a day or two off because others do.

Until next month.

Dr. Jan Becker