Vet Warning: Don't Give Holiday Foods to Pets

Veterinarians have warned pet owners time and again that giving pets festive foods such as chocolates, mince pies, and the like during the holidays will put their pets at risk. Vets have seen many poisoning related incidents affecting pets over the holiday season.

Vets Now, a group of dedicated veterinarians who tend to take emergency animal cases, has handled a lot of calls from anxious pet owners during the holidays. These queries were made particularly during the last week of the year 2015 up to the first few days of 2016, BT reported.

Majority of these emergency calls were related to chocolate toxicity. According to PetMD, chocolates contain caffeine and theobromine, two ingredients which can result to health complications in animals. Some of the warning signs of chocolate toxicity that dog owners would have to look out for include, vomiting, diarrhea, rapid breathing, and muscle rigidity. When these are present in dogs, it is best to consult a vet immediately as delay in medical care can be fatal for the animal.

In the UK, more than 400 calls were related to chocolate toxicity. Other reported health issues involved ingesting mince pies and Christmas pudding. The latter two have raisins, which are also poisonous to dogs.

Richard Dixon, the chairman of Vets-Now mentioned that despite their efforts to campaign on the adverse effects of giving holiday foods to pets, they still received a high number of inquiries and actual caseload during the holiday season.  

Dixon mentioned that, "Although the tree, lighting and decorations are an attraction for mischievous pets, food remains the biggest threat, with an increasing number of pets falling ill after feasting on our human festive treats which can be very poisonous to them."

While decorations and lights can be a source of danger for pets during the holidays, the biggest danger to watch out for is what these pets munch on. Pet owners should be mindful of the arrays of treats that they give to their pets, lest the latter would need to spend the holidays at the vet clinic.