The Halloween candy bowl still lingers, and we barely have the Thanksgiving dinner strategy mapped out, but department stores and media have already shoved the Christmas season down our throats! Before I was in the veterinary field, the Christmas thoughts that filled my head included sparkly snow, the smell of my Grandma's kitchen, the beautifully wrapped gifts.....paints a pretty lovely picture, huh? Now that I am approaching my 6th year as a tech, Christmas brings thoughts of vomiting, diarrhea, sore tummies, missing toys, and chewed house plants to my mind. By now you may have guessed I'm going to highlight all the little things that can cause you a big headache during the holidays if your pet tangos with them. Whats that you say? "Yeah, Yeah I know chocolate is bad" This is true, but I have lots of little tid- bits of information that may come as a surprise to some.
My first biggie is indeed, chocolate. Not to get too technical, but the toxic chemical in chocolate is called Methylxanthine, and each type of chocolate has different levels of this chemical. Our lesser offender, white chocolate, isn't even chocolate, however it may still cause vomiting and diarrhea due to the sweetness and it being different from what your pet normally eats (at least I hope so!) The next offender would be milk chocolate, and the worst is baker's chocolate, bitter chocolate, or dark chocolate. If your pet chows down on any of these bad boys, take note of how much you think he/she ate and call the veterinary clinic and they have a nice mathematical chart that can tell you if your pet ate a toxic level or not. However, a good rule of thumb to me is, if your dog ate enough chocolate to put the Hershey's factory out of business for a week, get in your car, call us on the way, and get your butt to the clinic, Christmas cheer and all.I just realized I committed my own pet peeve, I skipped over Thanksgiving and went right into Christmas! Two big things to have your pet steer clear of are turkey bones and hot containers. Think of all the hot containers lined up on the table at your family gathering (Ok, I'm kind of hungry), it would be horrible if your pet pulled one down and severely burned himself, and also ingested all that rich "people food" which can cause GI upset and pancreatitis. Ok, back to Christmas, now I'm just going to list hazards, most of them are self explanatory, but remember not everything can or will pass through Fido's colon.

-Christmas tree
-light strands
-tree water
-ornaments
-decoration hooks
-tinsel (BIG ONE, does NOT pass in cats)
-ribbons (likewise)
-styrofoam
-fires in the fire place (well, yeah)
An area that I think needs it's own paragraph is holiday plants. Poinsettias are very poisonous to cats, as well as lilies, so if you have an extra curious fluff ball, don't risk it. One that was news to me is the Kalanchoe, or to me and probably you, the Christmas Cactus. My mom always has these, she thinks they are just precious. I thought they were cute until I read the havoc they can cause for our pets. Ingesting Christmas Cactus can cause the following
-vomiting
-bloody diarrhea
-drooling
-lethargy
-heart arrythmias
-eye problems
-seizures
-delirium, weakness, and stiffness

Holy.....cow. I think I provided enough added holiday stress to my audience so I will leave you with one last snippet of info. New Years! think of the confetti and balloons..and for some, the BOOZE. All three things are no fun for our pets, if a human can get drunk, so can an animal, and it causes the same exact clinical signs. It may be entertaining if Aunt Sue has a little too much Pinot Grigio, but it can seriously jeopardize our pet's health if they do the same.
Some may call me paranoid, but I've seen probably 90% of the above scenarios out in the field, and that is not a Merry Christmas for anyone involved, especially our furry friends.

Happy Holidays, Everyone!!!

CR
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