Pet Safety Tips

Holidays

The Holidays are a happy time of the year, but can present special challenges to pet owners. Being an instinctive creature of habit, your pet might not cope well with holiday season transformation in your household. The sights and sounds you enjoy might well disturb your pet. With attentive care, you can prevent or minimize the stress and remove potential hazards.

Sources of stress
Any change can result in stress for your small pet. Decorations. Trees and lights. Music. Foods. An increased coming and going of company, perhaps including their pets. The increased activity in your household during the holidays could keep it illuminated up to 18 hours a day, disrupting your pet’s schedule and sleep. Nocturnal animals may find it difficult to sleep with all the daytime activity. The coming and going of strangers and relatives can be very intimidating. Because you are busy shopping, entertaining, or traveling, time with your pet may be more limited and routines  disrupted. Your pet might feel left out or even experience separation anxiety.

Holiday stress relievers
Follow these tips to make a difference in your pet’s stress level.

• Maintain diet, feeding time and hygiene routines. Resist the urge to dress up your pet in costume.
• Provide your pet toys to pass the time and chew. Limit your pet’s exposure to strangers and activity.  This may mean confining him, but may be less stressful than exposure to costumed trick or treaters or a roomful of loud Christmas party guests.
• If an accident does occur, be prepared. Make sure your first aid kit and veterinarian contact information are easy to find.
• Spend quality time with your pet each day to provide reassurance, and closely watch your pet for signs of stress.

Potential holiday hazards
Pet accidents and illnesses increase dramatically during the holidays. This caution is not meant to spoil your fun, but to keep your holidays safe.

• Prevent exposure to electrical wires, which could cause dangerous burns or electrocution. Conceal them or use pet-proof covers.
• Prevent access to holiday plants. Never allow your pet unsupervised access to poinsettia, holly (leaves and berries), mistletoe, or other plants commonly used during the holidays.
• A decorated tree poses many hazards such as tinsel, garland, flocking, and artificial snow.  The tree may also be coated with potentially harmful fire retardant, fertilizer, or insecticide. Larger decorating lights can become hot and cause burns. Low hanging lights / ornaments and burning candles can be especially attracting.
• Many holiday foods can be toxic to pets, including chocolate (bakers, semi sweet, milk, dark), sugary cookies, salty snacks, alcoholic drinks and Halloween candy.
• Tape, ribbons, and the inks or metals used in some gift wraps may cause problems if eaten.

Have a safe, happy holiday season with your pet!

ASPCA’s 2009 Top 10 Poisons List

In 2009, the ASPCA’s Animal Poison Control Center (APCC) in Urbana, IL, handled more than 140,000 cases of pets exposed to toxic substances, many of which included everyday household products. Don’t leave it up to Fido or Fluffy to keep themselves safe. Prevention is key, but if you suspect your pet has ingested something toxic, contact your veterinarian or the Animal Poison Control Center’s 24-hour hotline at (888) 426-4435.

• Human Medications – keep all prescription and over-the-counter meds out of reach

• Insecticides- Exposure to garden pesticides or applying the wrong flea & tick treatment to the wrong species can put pets at risk.
• People Food – Avoid grapes, raisins, avocado, products containing xylitol (found in gum) and chocolate
• Common Household Plants – Lilies, azalea, rhododendron, sago palm, lilies, kalanchoe and schefflera – lilies are especially toxic to cats, even in small amounts.
• Veterinary Medications –when misused, preparations like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, heartworm preventatives, de-wormers, antibiotics, vaccines and even nutritional supplements can be harmful.
• Rodenticides such as mouse and rat poison can be potentially life threatening to pets.
• Household Cleaners – protect your pets from both inhalation and ingestion of bleaches, detergents and disinfectants.
• Heavy metals – such as lead produced when surfaces in older homes are scraped or sanded.
• Garden Products – such as certain types of fertilizer, that can cause severe gastrointestinal distress and even obstruction
• Chemical Hazards – those found in ethylene glycol antifreeze, paint thinner, drain cleaners and pool/spa chemicals

Storm Season
If you are evacuated, bring your pets with you if possible. Pets left behind can be lost, injured or killed. Do your homework ahead of time to find friends, family or a hotel willing to accept animals if an evacuation is ordered. Some hotels and motels may lift their “no pet” restrictions in an emergency, so check into this policy in advance. Click on the following link for Flagler Humane Society’s emergency shelter policy.

All pet owners should have an emergency supply kit for their animals to include:

• A five-day supply of food, drinking water, and bowls
• Current photos
• Plastic bags
• Identification tags and collars
• Medications, medical records, license and first aid supplies
• Blankets or towels for bedding and warmth
• Leashes, harnesses and a sturdy carrier large enough for animals to comfortably sleep
• Cat owners also need cat litter, a litter box and a carrier large enough to comfortably house cats for several days and allowing separate areas for elimination and feeding

For more information on the disaster plan supported by HSUS, you can click here. For further information on local disaster shelters for your pet, call the Flagler County Agricultural Center at 437-7464.

Don’t Leave Your Pet in the Car!
During the summer months in Florida, EVEN in the shade, EVEN with the windows cracked, the interior temperature of a car can approach 120 degrees within minutes, leaving your pet at risk for heatstroke. Our pets count on us to protect them, and you can do this by simply not leaving your pet inside a parked car even for a short time. Hot Weather Tips (click here)

ID Your Pet
Always keep current identification on your pet. ID tags are inexpensive and easy to obtain.

Microchipping is another option to consider, though it should not be considered a substitute for a traditional collar and tag because it can only be detected by a scanner used in a vet hospital or shelter. Microchipping is a permanent, sterile, encapsulated microchip, about the size of a single grain of rice implanted between the shoulder blades of a pet using a quick, non-surgical process (similar to that used for vaccination). The chip’s ID code is traced to the owner using a national database. For details on our microchipping service, please click here.

Keep several copies of your pet’s photo on hand. Call local animal shelters and vets and file a report. If your pet is missing, begin to search immediately. The sooner you begin, the greater the chance you will recover your pet.

Leashing
Safety requires control and leashes are a wonderful control tool because they set boundaries for dogs. A dog that runs loose has no reason to respect another. A dog that runs free can, in a split second, decide to dash into the street, chase another person, dog, car, cat, or just plain take off.

“But, my dog will stay right with me.” That can be a dangerous assumption!

Dogs who walk off leash are free to do anything you may – or may not – want them to do! Other loose dogs, strays, or wild animals may tangle with your dog. You have no control. On leash, you still may not have control over another animal, but on-leash control could help prevent the encounter in the first place. Dogs are very instinctive and reactive. If a running squirrel, cat, or rabbit crosses your path, the dog’s chase instinct (prey drive) clicks in. There is never any guarantee that voice control will stop the chase! A strange noise or movement can instantly lead your dog into a non-thinking, reactive dash, leaving him at risk for accidental injury, or mistreatment by someone who perceives him as being a nuisance or aggressive. Unless they’re in an adequately confined area, such as a fenced yard, leashing is essential to keeping your pet safe.