Watch Out For Holiday Cat Hazards

Holiday decorations, plants, food and other items can be harmful to cats.

Cords and tree lights — Electrocution is prevalent in young animals, such as kittens or puppies, which are more apt to explore by mouthing or chewing objects such as electrical cords and tree lights.

Real Christmas trees — “A lot of pet owners are choosing to go with artificial trees,” Dr. Sonja Olson, head of emergency at Florida Veterinary Specialists, said. “It’s not that real Christmas trees are toxic to pets, but tree needles can be irritating and extremely harmful to pets’ digestive tracts when swallowed. Pets also like to drink tree water, which may sort of taste like tea, but it can also be harmful to their digestive tracts. People have to be sure to cover up the tree water and keep pets from drinking it.”

Potpourri — “Potpourri and especially the oil-based potpourri people often burn over a flame can be very harmful to pets,” Olson said. “Cats will lick it off of their paws and ingest it. This type of oil is a very significant irritant when ingested. It’s important to make sure our pets stay far away from any kind of potpourri.”

Plants — While many holiday plants are not fatally poisonous to animals, poinsettias and holly can cause mouth irritation, drooling, vomiting and diarrhea.

Tinsel — “Cats will play with tinsel and eat it,” Bessler said. The problem is it can become impacted in their intestines. “Sometimes the strings can cause their intestines to get bunched up into a knot. And, if the problem continues, it can actually saw through the intestines.”

Ornaments — “The glass tree ornaments look like regular toys to dogs, so they’ll bite into them and get a mouth full of glass,” Bessler said.

Chocolate — “It’s always best to keep a pet away from chocolate,” Dr. David Bessler, emergency medicine clinician at NYC Veterinary Specialists, said. While it takes a large amount of milk chocolate to make an animal sick, dark chocolate is 10 times more poisonous.

Bread dough/yeast — Dogs may sneak some bread dough meant for holiday treats. In the process of rising, the dough expands in the stomach, and the yeast produces ethanol. This can lead to severe problems including alcohol poisoning, stomach distension and potential torsion.

People food and table scraps — “The biggest problems we see over the holidays are emergencies related to table scraps,” Bessler explained. “Whenever we gather for large family meals, we love to include our pets as part of the family. Great idea, but do it right! Dogs should not be fed fatty ‘people-food’ —not because it will make them fat, but because it can cause vomiting, diarrhea and pancreatitis, an often fatal disease which claims the lives of thousands of dogs every year.”

Bones — “There is no safe bone,” Bessler said. “Chicken bones, cooked or uncooked, beef bones and fish bones have all killed dogs. Bones get stuck in the esophagus, stomach and intestines and can poke through the walls of those organs, meaning almost certain death. To those people who say, ‘but dogs eat bones in the wild!’ I say, ‘Bones kill dogs in the wild, too.’ A bone that fits down the throat of a wolf does not fit down the throat of a Yorkie.”