Tis the season. O Tannenbaum. There are many kinds so Christmas trees: real, live, artificial. I love them all, but we must be careful as pet owners to keep our fur babies safe.
I hear stories every day about cats, especially kittens, climbing trees and possibly knocking them over. Some tricks to prevent this are to anchor the top to the ceiling or wall and to put up a baby gate/fence around the tree to block access.
Dog often drinking the tree water. If you have added preservative or nutrients for the tree, this might make the dog vomit or have diarrhea. That is no fun around the holidays.
Both dogs and cats are famous for eating ornaments. I had one special ornament that has never been the same since chewed on by my bored puppy many years ago. This year, even though my pups are a year old, I just did a tabletop tree. I don’t want to tempt them to be naughty.
Some pets may chew on electric lights and get an electrical burn in their mouth. I laugh at the cat scene in the Christmas Vacation movie, but I have never seen a Persian go up in a puff of smoke.
Here at Garden Ridge Animal Hospital, we put up our annual “Angel” tree to memorialize patients that have passed in last year. If you had a pet (that was a patient here) pass in 2019, please stop by and see your baby’s angel ornament. And feel free to take it home AFTER Christmas.
And we wish all our patients and clients a safe and Merry Christmas.
