Safety Tips for Pets During Holidays

Decorations

Keep your pet away from potentially hazardous decorations. Hanging decorations, such as streamers, christmas lights, ribbons, and tinsel can easily become tangled around your pet or if swallowed could cause serious digestive problems.

And keep small decorations away from your pet, since they could cause choking. Also some decoration materials may contain hazardous chemicals or colors on it which may cause serious problems if they somehow get into your pets stomach.

Keep your pets away from decorations like lightning which require electricity because pets have habit to chew the wire of it and if they somehow cut through the wire, it may result into severe electric shock.

Costumes

Make sure your pet's costume is safe. Never leave your pet unsupervised in a costume. If you dress your pet in a costume, make sure that it is not unsafe or irritating them.

Make sure the cloth of the costume is breathable. Also make sure that the cloth does not have any kind of chemicals or hazardous colours spread on them. Pets have habit to chew their costume so it may get into their stomach which may cause complications.

A costume should not constrict movement or obstruct your pet's vision, hearing, or ability to breathe or bark. Reflective tape on a pets costume may be useful in helping others see your pet, above all if you plan on your pet being in his costume after dark.

Also, check on the costume for small, dangling, or easily chewed-off pieces that your pet could choke on or may cause harm. Some of these could be buttons, elastic or rubber bands.

Keep in mind if you live in a warm climate that some costumes and the excitement could increase your pet's body temperature.

Water

You should always keep pot of water around your pet. During holiday fun we usually forget to do such simple things like filling the pot with water.

Also the water should be pure. That's why I recommend getting a good quality water purifier. Kent water purifiers are considered as good and their maintenance cost is also low.

Water is very important for our body because most of the body parts like heart, brain are made up of water. So even a slight drop in water level of the body may result in serious complications.

Fireplaces

We love to see our pets sitting in front of our fireplace keeping warm, but please beware. Ashes and popping wood could harm your best friend. Always keep a fire screen in front of your fireplace while in use and a second screen can help to keep your pet further away from sparks. Even when not in use, close metal and glass doors tightly, you don't want your pet playing in an ash filled fireplace.

Electrical Cords

Tack them down or cover them If your pet chews through the electrical wire or cord it can result in very serious tongue burns. This could lead to respiratory distress as the burn will cause the pet’s lung to fill with fluid.

Fireworks

Just as everyone loves fireworks, keep your pet well away from them. As fireworks are dangers for us humans the same goes for your best friend. Keep your pet on a leash so they don’t go running after the pretty lights.

Do not leave your pets outside unsupervised on and around Halloween, including your outdoor cat. Black cats especially. They may be at risk from kids playing pranks. Don’t forget that a black cat is a symbol for Halloween. Some shelters will not adopt out black cats on Halloween as a safety precaution. As an alternative, keep your pets safely inside, away from trick-or-treaters and other Halloween activities. Your pets will not be afraid of the noise and costume children.