By Lynn Broom
Longmead Veterinary Practice.

It’s that time of year where we all get together and eat our own body weight in food. Our pets want to be involved but we need to be cautious about any sudden changes to their routine to prevent problems.

Giving treats in moderation is fine but making large changes to their diet for one day can have disastrous effects on their digestive system. This may be as simple as causing a mild colitis but diarrhoea on the carpet when the house is full is not ideal. At worst, gut effects may include vomiting leading to dehydration and/or pancreatitis which often require veterinary involvement. Both you, your pet and your vet would prefer not to have to come into the practice on Christmas Day.

Christmas often involves relatives coming to stay. Older relatives are often on medications and many of these are toxic to pets if ingested. Please ensure that medications are kept carefully locked away to avoid accidental ingestion and any dropped tablets are found and disposed of.

With all the excitement of present opening and co-ordinating 15 courses for dinner, your pets can be left less well monitored. If they do accidentally eat something potentially toxic, intervention such as inducing vomiting is time dependent, and finding that something was eaten several hours earlier reduces the options for treatment and increases the risk of symptoms which may be life threatening depending on what has been eaten.
A reminder that anything that contains raisins, currants or sultanas has the potential to cause irreversible kidney failure and, as many Christmas dishes contain these, extreme care must be taken to prevent ingestion.

Most people know the risks of chocolate but, to clarify, white chocolate contains no cocoa powder so is no more toxic than other sweets, and milk chocolates combined with soft centres and so on have very low levels of cocoa powder, so toxicity is low – unless a lot has been eaten or your pet is small. Dark chocolate is potentially highly toxic and even small amounts in large dogs can be fatal.
Foods containing xylitol – a sweetener – can cause very low glucose levels and potentially fatal liver damage in dogs. Many more drinks and foods, particularly sweets, contain this these days and it is essential that products containing it are not fed to dogs.

Alcohol is also more toxic to pets than to us. It may be funny to see a tipsy dog but life threatening symptoms can develop in pets which have drunk – or ingested – alcoholic drinks or food. Please be careful where alcoholic drinks are left so that they do not get drunk accidentally.
Christmas will – it is hoped – be enjoyed by everyone, including your pets, if you take simple steps to ensure their safety and prevent unwanted visits to the vet or worse.