Thanksgiving is a time when families and friends gather around delicious food to express gratitude and spend quality time together. Pet owners may want to involve their furry friends in the celebration by being extra generous with the table scraps, but many of these tasty handouts can be harmful to pets.
The Humane Society of Missouri’s Animal Medical Center of Mid-America offers these tips to help keep dogs, cats and other four-legged friends safe this Thanksgiving:
• Avoid feeding your pet anything they are not used to eating, even if it falls in the same food group as something they are used to. For example, if your pet is accustomed to eating chicken, turkey could still make them sick.
• Poultry and ham bones can be harmful to dogs. Chicken and turkey bones are hollow and shatter easily, causing little shards to possibly get caught in your pet’s throat or stomach. Ham bones usually have a lot of salt on them that could give your dog or cat an upset stomach.
• Fat drippings from your turkey pan are too much for your pet to handle. Do not pour this over their usual pet food as an added treat.
• Pumpkin is a natural stool softener for dogs and cats, and can cause diarrhea.
• Inform your guests of the rules when they arrive so they aren’t trying to get on your pet’s good side through food. Instead, have them hand your pet one of their usual treats to help them get acquainted.
• Make sure to secure your garbage when the meal is finished so your pet doesn’t gobble up all of those leftovers while you are taking your post-turkey nap.
For more information about Thanksgiving pet safety tips or how to purchase seasonal toys or treats for your pet, visit http://hsmo.org.