Joey’s Christmas Safety Message

By Scott Lackenby | Dated December 21, 2016

Hey everyone! Are you all ready for Christmas? It’s been super busy here at GVH. The Christmas boarders are coming in, so I’ve been busy helping to settle everyone in. It’s a busy job for a clinic cat at this time of year.

There’s always extra washing at this time of year

In case you missed the post the other day, our hours over the Christmas and New Year period will be slightly different. They are as follows:
Saturday 24th December 8am – 4pm
Sunday 25th December 10am-11am & 3pm-4pm
Monday 26th & Tuesday 27th December 10am-2pm
Saturday 31st December 8am-4pm
Sunday 1st & Tuesday 2nd January 10am-2pm
The public holidays, which are on bold, are for emergencies only.

It’s a super exciting time of year with loads of exciting things happening, but there are also a few hazards for your pets that you need to be aware of. Here are the common Christmas hazards for your pets:

• Ham – let’s face it, ham is delicious. But it’s bad for us animals. It’s high in fat. I mean really high in fat. Even feeding us a small amount of it can cause a condition called pancreatitis. It’s extremely painful and not all pets recover from it. Please don’t give us ham. Not even a little bit. And don’t give your canine companion the ham bone to munch on either.
• Bones – speaking of bones, be careful how you dispose of other bones you may have around from your Christmas dinner. Cooked bones can cause nasty tummy upsets and can even cause a blockage. As always, cooked chicken bones are a serious no no.
• Christmas cake – I know, who would of thought that cake could be a problem?!? But Christmas cake is full of dried fruit and alcohol, a bad combo for us. Dried fruits like sultanas and raisons can cause irreversible kidney damage. That goes for grapes too. And alcohol is just bad for us.
• Chocolate – I know you all know this, but chocolate is bad for us. Potentially fatal bad. Make sure it is well out of our reach.
  

  Badger’s chocolaty vomit

• Tinsel and other pretty decorations – I love tinsel! It makes and amazing sound when you wrestle in it. But some animals also find it delicious, and it then needs to be surgically removed. And most of the decorations that you humans have on your tree are the perfect size to be chewed, swallowed and then they can cause a nasty blockage. Watch us around the tree. We eat things you would never dream we would eat!!
  

  They are metal skewers that we removed from a dogs stomach!

• Lilies – Yep, those pretty flowers that are super common in bouquets are potentially deadly to us felines. It can cause irreversible kidney damage. It’s the powdery stuff from the bits in the middle that cause the problem. If you have cats, you are best to avoid lilies.
• General over indulgence – planning on eating your body weight in food this festive season? Personally, that sounds like heaven! But it can be dangerous for us animals. There is usually a lot of food around that we aren’t used to eating and left overs are often left unattended. Make sure scraps are securely disposed of and make sure your guests aren’t slipping us table scraps. They could potentially be costing you a Vet bill!

Man, there are a lot of things to be careful about at this time of year! Make sure you enjoy it though. And in case I don’t see you before, Merry Christmas!! Thank you to everyone for their amazing support in 2016. Here’s to a fab 2017!! Meows for now, love Joey xoxo