Holiday Pet Safety Tips

The holiday season brings snow, mistletoe and gingerbread houses, but these holiday high points can mean unforeseen dangers to your pets. Please take a look at these holiday pet safety tips. For more complete information, please consult your veterinarian.

1. Many holiday plants like poinsettias, mistletoe and holly are poisonous to your pets. Keep them up and out of your pet's reach. Call you veterinarian at any suspicion of ingestion.
2. Tinsel, while looking beautiful on your Christmas tree, can do a number on your pet's intestines. Try to hang it out of your pet's reach and keep it off the floor to avoid accidental ingestion.
3. You may use extra cords to light up your tree during the holidays. These cords may look like chew toys so please try to cover the cords with tape or a rug to avoid a shocking experience for your pet.
4. Keep ornaments out of your pet's reach. If glass ornaments break, they can become painfully lodged in your pet's paws. Also, many Christmas ornaments look like toys, but can cause serious, and sometimes life threatening, health problems if ingested.
5. Keep chocolate Christmas treats out of the reach of your pets. Chocolate is toxic if ingested.

While it is important to keep your pet safe this holiday season, make sure to give thanks for them and give them some extra love as well.

Keeping Your Pets Safe During Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a time to bring the family together and relax over football and turkey. But with all those tantalizing smells, Thanksgiving can be a time full of temptation for your pet. Here are a few tips to keep your pets safe during turkey day.

1)      Even though the people in your family may overindulge on holiday delights, this is not a good idea for your pets. Feeding them excessive amounts of table scraps can lead to sickness and digestive issues, so please stick to their basic diet.

2)  Many Thanksgiving delights can be toxic to pets, including some types of vegetables. For a complete list of foods not to feed your pet, please click here. If your pet does get into something he or she shouldn't this Thanksgiving, here's the number for the animal poison control center: (888) 426-4435. Please note that a $65 fee may be charged depending on your call.

3)      Also, keep unattended pets away for the holiday table. Food sitting close to the edge of the table can be too much of a temptation for pets. They can snatch items off the table, causing sickness. They can also break glass, which can become lodged in their paws.

4)      Keep dogs and cats away from open ovens. Sometimes curiosity can get the best of pets, causing them to get burned. 

5)      Keep all but the most social pets away from running children and hordes of holiday guests. Too many new people can cause your pets undue stress.

6)      Don’t give you pets turkey, duck of chicken bones. They are brittle and can splitter easily and can lodge in your pets intestines. This can leave your holiday ending in a trip to the animal hospital.

We hope this helps you keep your pets safe this Thanksgiving. Be sure to take some extra time this Thursday to give thanks for the unconditional love your pets provide.

Celebrate the Season with Your Pet

With the busy holiday season fast approaching, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and caught up in the hubbub. Make sure your pets don’t get neglected or forgotten during this special time of year. We at the Chemung County SPCA have come up with some fun ways you can include your pet in all the holiday merriment! Please read below for our tips.

1. Have them help make customized holiday gifts. Pets make great assistants. Whether they are lying at your feet or participating in the gift making, they can be a big part of your holiday creations. One fun project you can do is having your pet “sign” a piece of art to send to friends and family. To do this, use a non-toxic paint and lightly coat their paws. Then gently press their paw onto the surface.

2. Include them in your family holiday photos. Pets are part of our family, so why not include them in your holiday greeting cards. This can be difficult, so make sure you have a photographer that understands animals and monitor your pets’ stress level during the process. Then you can send a holiday card with the whole family smiling on the cover.

3. Take them with you to visit a lonely neighbor or relative (*only do this if the neighbor or relative likes pets). Nothing spreads holiday cheer better than a visit from a furry friend. Lonely neighbors and relatives might love a friendly canine face. Make sure to ask first, however, if the person would mind if you brought your animal over to avoid disastrous consequences.

 4. Make them their own holiday cookies. Click here for a fun and easy recipe. While baking holiday cookies it may be tempting to indulge your pets. It’s not good for animals to have the large quantities of sugar found in human cookies, so try baking them their own cookies and then cutting them out in holiday shapes just like you would regular holiday cookies. This is a safe and healthy way for your pet to indulge, in moderation.

 5. Keep them safe and remove holiday hazards from their reach. Follow the tips below to have a safe and happy holiday season.

a)      Even though the people in your family may overindulge on holiday delights, this is not a good idea for your pets. Feeding them excessive amounts of table scraps can lead to sickness and digestive issues, so please stick to their basic diet.

b)      Also, keep unattended pets away from the holiday table. Food sitting close to the edge of the table can be too much of a temptation for pets. They can snatch items off the table, causing illness. They can also break glass, which can become lodged in their paws.

c)      Keep dogs and cats away from open ovens. Sometimes curiosity can get the best of pets, causing them to get burned. 

d)      Keep all but the most social pets away from running children and hordes of holiday guests. Too many new people can cause your pets undue stress. Sometimes the best thing is to give them a room of their own.

e)      Don’t give your pets turkey, duck or chicken bones. They are brittle and can splitter easily and can lodge in your pet’s intestines. This can leave your holiday ending in a trip to the animal hospital.

f)        Be careful of holiday adornments. They can break and get painfully lodged in paws, skin and stomachs. Also, many kitties love to climb Christmas trees, so make sure to monitor your pet to avoid a disaster. Also, keep pets away from open flame.

Halloween Pet Safety Tips

Halloween is fast approaching and the Chemung County Humane Society and SPCA wants to encourage all families to keep their pets safe this Halloween. Follow these tips to have a stress free evening for your pet:

1. Keep your pets inside during Halloween. With the large number of unknown people in the neighborhood, your animal is safer inside.  If left outside, your cat or dog could get teased, hurt or scared. Also, make sure your pet is wearing a collar and ID tags just in case they dart out when you open the door for trick-or-treaters.
2. Trick-or-treat candies are not for pets – chocolate is poisonous to a lot of animals, and tin foil and cellophane candy wrappers can be hazardous if swallowed.
3. Be careful of pets around a lit pumpkin – they can knock it down and cause a fire or burn themselves. 
4. Don’t dress the dog or cat in costume unless you know he or she loves it.  Otherwise, it puts a lot of stress on your animal.
5. It’s best to keep your pet in a separate room during trick-or-treat visiting hours.  Too many strangers in costumes can be very scary for animals. You may know that the child under that scary costume is harmless, but your pet does not.