My owner visits a network of other humans that like to talk about all kinds of things. The other day a woman named Kimberlee Leonard started a discussion with a story about her dog, Chewie, and from the story you can learn a valuable lesson about what dogs should and should not eat. Here is some of what she shared:
Being a dog owner my entire life and having Chewie for nearly 14 years, I thought I had been through most anything regarding dogs….
Over the years I have learned onions can cause issues with their white blood cell count, grapes and raisins in small quantities can cause renal failure, and chocolate is fine for my PMS but (more…)
I’m not sure I want my owners to know all of this pet safety information, especially the part about food, but since I’m happy to eat just about anything, maybe it’s a good idea. During the holidays, there are things around the house, and things that people eat, that are not good for pets. Here are just a few health and safety tips:
High-fat holiday foods that people enjoy can make some of us animals sick, especially little ones like me. Fatty foods can lead to pancreatitis in pets, just like it can in people, only a little more easily because we are smaller. This is a very serious thing for pets to get and will mean staying in the pet hospital.
Chocolate, coffe and tea contain something that causes cardiac problems and problems with the nervous system in pets, which can lead to seizures and gastro-intestinal upset. Dark chocolate is even worse than regular chocolate, which is bad as it is.
If you have a party and serve alcohol, be sure that we don’t get tempted to finish off the glasses of drinks that aren’t finished by your human friends, that can be fatal, every year hundreds of dogs die from alcohol poisoning.
The pretty plant, Holly, causes digestive upset in dogs and cats.
Mistletoe causes heart problems and digestive upset
Poinsettias cause blisters in the mouth and digestive upset
Secure your tree if you have a cat, especially if it’s your first Christmas with the cat and you don’t know their habits. They will sometimes climb the tree, and knock ornaments off the tree to play with.
Cats might swallow tree tinsel, ribbon and other things that can cause obstructions inside that might require surgery.
Don’t have batteries lying around or other little things that you dog might chew on and make them very sick because of the toxins inside.
Macadamia nuts are not good for pets, they can affect the nervous and digestive system.
Potpourri, the wonderful smell comes from oils, and those oils can be toxic to pets.
DON’T GIVE PETS AS GIFTS unless you have planned well ahead for them…so many pets end up in shelters or out on the streets because the family isn’t prepared and gets tired of them, and that’s just plain mean and sad.
A lot of these tips came from a vet in a town not far from here, his site is newtonvet.com.
Like any other dog, one of my favorite things to do is to enjoy the little tidbits of food that are dropped on the floor by my owners. Sometimes they drop them by accident, and sometimes on purpose. I have the man of the house trained to give me food at dinner time right from his plate. And he’s the one that made the rule that there would be no feeding the dog from the table when I moved in!
Then there’s those other times when I’m hanging around in the kitchen when dinner is being made. I bring my ball into the kitchen to trick them into thinking I want to play, but really, I’m just waiting for any little bit of food that they drop while preparing dinner. The other day was the BEST! They spilled part of a pot of RICE all over the floor, after it was seasoned, and so it tasted great and I moved right in to do my job of cleaning up the mess.
BUT, I’ve been hearing some talk about being cleaner around the house, something about a Dirt Devil that has received Energy Star approval. I don’t know what a Dirt Devil is, but the word “Devil” kind of scares me, especially if it means that it’s going to take away all the great goodies I’ve been finding left on the floor. I’ve also overheard some talk about saving energy, it seems to be a big thing with humans these days, and the AccuCharge Stick Vac (the only kind of “stick” I know about is the kind people throw so dogs can go fetch them) and Hand Vac use 70% less energy. Oh well, I guess you have to be a human to understand these things, and I guess I’m just going to have to hope my owner doesn’t change his mind about that feeding the dog at the table rule.
