Thanksgiving Threats

Your fabulous feast lay before you on that most food-oriented holiday of all–Thanksgiving! And those beseeching , soulful eyes of your pet look at you with adoration and hunger. Can you refuse? Yes! Sometimes generosity can lead to injury.

Here’s some things to be careful of during the Thanksgiving holidays:

• Too much fatty, rich, or even just new types of foods can give your pet pancreatitis or gastroenteritis. Both can be very painful and become quite serious, so go easy on the tidbits. Better yet, none at all.
• Bones can tear up or obstruct your pets’ innards.
• The string often used to tie up the turkey during roasting can tie up your pets’ intestines too (as can the bag your turkey came in or the little red “popper”).
• Onions, often abundantly found in stuffing, destroy a dog’s red blood cells, leading to anemia.
• Too much chocolate, especially baking chocolate, can actually kill your dog, so keep it all well out of reach.

To show your pet how thankful you are to have them as part of your family, give them a feast of their own–perhaps a treat of canned pet food, a catnip treat, a special chewy, or a few tablespoons of peanut butter stuffed in a favorite “tube” toy (at least a half hour of entertainment). And when those eager eyes look at the loaded dining-room table, remember that your feast is not fit for your pet…and then give thanks for your pets’ healthy appetite!