Christmas is a joyous and festive time of the year, however as holiday preparation goes into full swing your pet’s safety can come into questions. Holiday decorations, while beautiful to us, can pose a potential threat to your pet and their safety.
At Goodnewsforpets we compiled the top 5 tips for the centerpiece of your holiday celebration, the Christmas tree, and how to help keep your pets safe around the tree.
Share these tips to encourage a safe holiday for everyone!1. Anchor your tree. Curious pets can easily knock over the Christmas tree, ornaments can be confused for toys and honest playful intentions can end in potential disaster for you and your pet if the tree is not properly secured.
1. Clean up pine needles. It’s important to stay on top of cleaning up after your tree. Fallen pine needles can wind up everywhere if you’re not careful and can cause damage if ingested by your pet.
2. Keep glass, breakable or edible ornaments out of reach. It’s a good rule of thumb to keep any sentimental or easily breakable ornaments near the top of your tree and out of reach of curious furry friends.
3. The tree stand is not another water bowl. Keep your pets from drinking water from the tree stand and avoid adding aspirin or any other toxic preservative into the tree water. Newer tree stands have higher sides making it difficult for pets to drink from the stand, consider a newer model if your tree stand is older and easily accessible to pets.
4. Avoid using tinsel, string, ribbons, poinsettias or potpourri. Poinsettias and potpourri are highly poisonous to pets. Tinsel, string and ribbon while decorative has the potential to cause serious injury to your pet. If ingested it can cause damage internally and a veterinarian should be contacted immediately. Be sure to clean up string and ribbon quickly to avoid the potential harm to your pet if they should become entangled.
5. Keep your pet out of harm’s way while you are decorating and/or entertaining in his or her own space, but also don’t forget to set aside some play time. The Chuck-It Pro Launcher is a great fetch toy to help get your canine pal’s energy out in mild winter weather or go for the Chuckit! Ultra Dog Toy Kit.
Share these tips with friends and family to make sure that everyone on two legs or more have a happy and safe holiday.