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HALLOWEEN HAZARDS

With the holiday will come decorations, happy trick or treaters and chocolate candies. To keep your pets safe and healthy a few things should be kept in mind.

Decorations should be positioned out of reach of the family pet. Artificial cobwebs may give the house that eerie appearance but can be easily swallowed by dogs and cats playing with it. This fiber may mimic string and “knot” up the intestinal tract to the point where surgery is the only option available to save the pet’s life. If decorations can not be placed where pets can not reach them, it is safer not to have them.

Trick-or-treaters may confuse the family dog. Your dog may view itself as the protector of the domain for 364 days out of the year and may not understand the concept of continuous strange visitors for 3 -4 hours. Dogs have been known to jump fences, escape through doors, chase and bite “intruders”.

Cats have also been known to escape only to be lost, or hit by a car. It is in the pets best interest to be kept confined during trick-or-treating hours. Cats can be placed with their food, water, and litter boxes in bedrooms. Dogs can be placed with their food and water within kennels. Once the activities have subsided, the animals can return to their normal routines.

All chocolate is potentially poisonous to dogs or cats and should be stored securely in high mounted cabinets. Chocolate ingestion can cause vomiting, diarrhea, cardiac failure, seizures, coma and can end in death 12 - 36 hours after it has been consumed. If it is suspected the family pet has eaten chocolate the safest plan is to have the animal immediately examined by your veterinarian.

In most cases vomiting is induced, followed by activated charcoal. In some cases gastric lavage (stomach pumping), IV fluids, and seizure control will make hospitalization necessary. Chocolate toxicity can be prevented by not allowing the pet to have access to the candies.

Have a happy and safe Halloween by keeping the family pet away from decorations, trick-or-treaters, and especially chocolate.

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