New Year’s dangers

Christmas tree

A few days before the New Year, most of us decorate the Christmas tree and clean it only in mid-January, so our smaller brothers have two whole weeks at their disposal to check all this sparkling beauty for stability. Even thorny branches are not always an obstacle for a curious animal. Be sure to securely fix the tree. She must stand firm. If it falls on your pet, it can seriously injure him. And knocking down a poorly fixed Christmas tree costs nothing even for a small-sized pet that has played out. Cats almost always try to climb branches, and dogs nibble on them. Christmas tree needles that fall off over time can contribute to both minor irritation on the paws of a pet, and serious lesions. If your home has a live Christmas tree, regularly inspect the animal’s paws, ears, and mucous membranes.

• It is better to choose a small Christmas tree and install it on a pedestal or table.
• Install it so that it is difficult to get close to it.
• Well, if the tree is firmly tied.
• If you have chosen a natural Christmas tree and it stands in water or a special solution, make sure that the animals do not drink this liquid: its absorption can lead to poisoning. For safety, cover the bucket in which the tree is installed with something. 

      In addition, popular holiday plants – poinsettia/”Christmas star”, hippeastrum, ornamental peppers and nightshade, azalea, cyclamen, Kalanchoe – are poisonous to pets. If you were given such a plant, or you decide to decorate your house with them, you need to take care of their inaccessibility to pets.   

Garlands, tinsel and Christmas decorations

Tinsel, sequins, rain, garlands – this is everything that dangerously attracts all pets with their brilliance, which are drawn to play and try interesting objects on the tooth. Animals cannot determine how dangerous a sparkling glass toy can be, and meanwhile small toys or fragments can cause serious injury. If you accidentally drop and break a Christmas tree decoration, keep your pet away from the shiny fragments, because while you are away for a few minutes, a cat or dog may cut itself. It is better to replace toys with plastic or felt, fabric, paper, wood, or natural materials. New Year’s garlands shimmering with multi-colored lights are no less dangerous. Firstly, a small light bulb is easy to swallow, and secondly, a pet can gnaw through the wires and get an electric shock. Do not touch the shocked person until you unplug the garland from the outlet. First of all, you need to stop the flow of current and pull the animal away from the danger zone. But it is forbidden to do it with bare hands! Use rubber gloves or a long stick. Often, pets lose consciousness, so artificial respiration and heart massage should be done. After that, urgent veterinary care is needed. Garlands should be hung so high that even in a jump the pet could not get them, for example, at the top of the ceiling, and when leaving, be sure to unplug the garland from the outlet. Rain and tinsel attract no less attention, cats and dogs love to chew on them, and, having played with them, they run the risk of getting very confused. If the pet has swallowed such a “toy”, in no case try to pull it out of the mouth by the protruding tip – as soon as the cat tastes the rain, they are no longer able to stop – the cat’s tongue consists of elongated villidirected to the pharynx, due to which food moves exclusively inside. A cat cannot spit out a bright decoration, and meanwhile, rain and tinsel have sharp edges and can easily damage the internal organs of the animal, cutting their walls with the edges, and also cause intestinal obstruction. If the tinsel has been swallowed, you will need to take the pet to the veterinarian. In a word, if there is a pet in the house, make sure that tinsel and rain, as well as serpentine, are in hard-to-reach places, but it is better to abandon them in favor of safer jewelry.

Guests

An attentive owner, as a rule, knows how his pet reacts to loud and sharp sounds. Is the reaction negative? So, you need to make sure that he is not scared, because loud music with a noisy feast can cause serious stress, against which phobias and undesirable behavior in dogs, idiopathic cystitis and fears and aggression in cats can appear. Warn your guests that there is an animal in the house. Let them not bother her with their attention, do not hug and pick up. Not all animals like it, especially from strangers. Follow the door. During the holiday fuss, your pet can jump out unnoticed onto the landing or into the yard and get lost. It is best to provide the pet with a separate room where guests will not enter, for example, a room with a bed, water and favorite toys, possibly with a toilet. 

New Year’s table

Strictly forbid guests to feed the pet food from the table, even if he walks around and looks with the hungriest eyes, begging for what dogs are especially prone to. Do not seek to treat the animal with something unusual, even if it seems that the pet is very happy to receive a piece of smoked sausage, a bone or skin from a fried chicken, a meat salad, a chocolate candy or a sweet muffin. The use of such products can lead to an exacerbation of latent diseases, poisoning or damage to the oral mucosa and gastrointestinal tract. Nuts, chocolates, lollipops are dangerous for pets, you should keep them away from the edge of the table. The diet of the animal should remain the same as on other days. The dog can be offered pieces of meat without salt and spices, carrots, apples, cucumbers and special treats for dogs – sausages, biscuits, dried offal. Cat – meat, special treats. You can put a plate with these delicacies on the table, and explain to the guests that you can only treat them with this, and nothing else. Cake – no special dog biscuits – you can!

Fireworks and walks

Loud noises and bright flashes frighten most animals, especially dogs. Even if the animal is at home, the sound of exploding firecrackers is very frightening and disturbing to dogs and cats. In this case, sedatives will come to the rescue. Such drugs will help your pet survive the New Year holidays without stress or reduce anxiety. On the street, having heard firecrackers and fireworks, the dog can wriggle out of the collar, or escape from the hands along with the leash and, hearing nothing, run in a panic, not understanding the road. It can be difficult to find a pet on the street after such an escape, some animals remain among the missing, and are endangered in the form of people, cars and other dogs. In the New Year, the number of lost dogs increases dramatically. To avoid this, during the New Year holidays, walk the dog exclusively on a leash, there should be an address tag on the collar or a separate lace, and it’s also good if the ammunition has reflective elements, this will help drivers see the dog if it does run away. Some dogs – very rarely – are not afraid, but on the contrary, they can grab a thrown firecracker, which can explode in its mouth. This is fraught with extremely serious injuries up to and including death. It is better to walk the dog during the day, before dark, and shorten the evening walk and go out on it before the New Year. You should not take your dog with you to watch fireworks, it will be safer for her to stay at home.       

Be attentive to your pets and may the New Year holidays bring you only joy!