Know what can make Halloween truly terrifying? Pets who get into these dangerous situations. Here are 7 safety tips to keep your pets safe this Halloween:
- Keep all candies, including chocolates, anything containing xylitol or raisins, and anything containing a stick or wrapper, out of your pet’s reach. Chocolate, xylitol, and raisins are extremely toxic, while sticks and wrappers can cause life-threatening bowel obstruction.
- Keep black cats inside for a few days around Halloween. They are more likely to be pestered this time of year.
- Make sure pet costumes don’t have metallic beads, snaps, and other small pieces your pet could swallow.
- Keep pets away from pumpkins. Though they aren’t poisonous to cats or dogs, they can cause blockages if your pet swallows big chunks.
- When giving candy to trick-or-treaters, keep your pets away from the door so they don’t try to escape.
- Keep batteries out of your pets’ reach. When ingested, batteries can cause tissue injury in the mouth and esophagus and heavy metal toxicity if left in the GI tract for more than a few days.
- Also keep glow sticks out of your pets’ reach. While not life-threatening, the chemical inside can cause mouth pain, irritation, hyper-salivation, and foaming.
If your pet ingests any of these Halloween goodies, please contact us right away.