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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us December 23, 2003 Healthy Pets Holiday stuff can endanger the fluffy ones Stephen Tesluk The holiday season may bring peace and goodwill to men, but it also can present unique dangers to our beloved pets. For an example of a memorable Yuletide disaster, we must accompany the Ghost of Christmas Past back many years, to a Christmas I spent on duty as a senior student in the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at UC Davis. Christmas Day had been quiet at the hospital, but the next evening we had a frantic owner bring Bob and Bing, his two Weimaraners, into the emergency clinic. Both dogs had bloated and hard abdomens, and had been frequently vomiting small amounts of liquid since the early afternoon. The owner had spent the morning making turkey soup with the leftovers from Christmas dinner. After he fed Bob and Bing their usual three cups of dry kibble that afternoon, he decided they deserved an extra treat. So he put down a large bowl of turkey soup for each of them, which they gratefully devoured. About an hour later, he noticed the dogs were eating grass when he let them out into the yard, and soon they began to vomit, but all that came out was grass and a little fluid. An hour and several unproductive retches later, he noticed the bloating so he brought the dogs into the hospital. The dogs were taken to radiology, and the clinicians and students reviewed the films. The stomach on each dog was large and distended, and packed full of kibble. The small intestine leading out of the stomach was empty. The turkey soup had caused the kibble to expand rapidly in the stomach, forming a firm mass that could not pass into the intestine and could not be vomited up. We sedated Bob and Bing and passed a large tube down their esophagus into their stomach. A smaller diameter second tube was passed down the first tube, and we ran water through that tube in a futile attempt to break up the impaction and flush it back out the larger tube. Mineral oil and massage of the stomach did nothing to relieve the blockage. After 12 hours of failed attempts to get the kibble out, the clinicians took both dogs to surgery, where their stomachs were opened, and the impacted kibble was finally removed with a stainless steel trowel. Thankfully, Bob and Bing made a full recovery, and that was the last time they ever tasted turkey soup. Admittedly, turkey soup bloat is one of the more unique holiday dangers for pets, but there are many others. Here are some tips to help avoid some of the more common problems. • Decorations can pose a threat to pets — mistletoe, holly, and lilies are toxic, and poinsettias can cause vomiting and burns in the mouth and throat. • Lights and electric cords should be placed safely out of reach if there are pets in the house that like to chew, and Christmas trees should be well secured so they won’t be knocked over by exuberant cats or dogs. • Sharp or breakable ornaments, string, tinsel and ribbon should be kept out of reach — they can form dangerous foreign bodies if ingested, and lit candles should never be left unattended, particularly around puppies or kittens. • Holiday treats can also pose a threat to pets. Make sure to keep chocolate and raisons out of reach because they are toxic to pets, and left over human foods can cause vomiting and diarrhea if pets eat too much. Also consider that there can be a lot of chaos in the home around Christmas, try to make sure that pets stay on their normal routine as far as feeding and exercise goes, and keep their collars with ID tags on in case they try to make a break through a door inadvertently left open. Finally, if company is coming over, set up a room out of the way for your pets to stay in if they become agitated with too many new faces in the home. I hope you and yours have a happy and safe holiday. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Free Music Downloads Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks Online Casinos FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products best online casino teleconferencing High-End Gaming Computers Diamonds Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Sportsbook Discounted Website Hostings Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Myspace Layouts Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Student Loans Bonus Casino ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Canadian Pharmacy Casino Gambling Sites Backpacks Click Here .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams