Thanksgiving is only a few days away—will your pet be safe this holiday? Learn about a few common Thanksgiving pet hazards from your Savannah, GA vet at Westside Animal Hospital:

Toxic Foods

Plenty of foods on your Thanksgiving dinner table aren’t good for your animal companion. The list includes onions, garlic, chives, grapes, raisins, salty items, certain types of nuts, and many more. Also remember that alcohol is extremely dangerous for pets; keep all beer, wine, liquor, champagne, and any foods cooked with alcohol far out of your pet’s reach.

Fatty Table Scraps

Don’t allow your family members to slip your pet too many fatty table scraps, as too much fat can cause health problems. Also keep buttery or rich foods to a minimum. Too much of any foreign substance can give a pet an upset stomach, or lead to diarrhea or vomiting in more severe instances. If you’d like to give your pet a holiday treat, stick with a few pieces of fully-cooked white-meat turkey.

Bones

It’s tempting to give your pet turkey or ham bones during the holidays as a special treat, but it’s best to think twice. Cooked and uncooked bones can splinter when a pet chews them, potentially lacerating a pet’s mouth or stomach or causing intestinal obstruction. Instead of bones, give your pet a good chew toy to keep them occupied and satisfy their instinct to munch on something.

Garbage

The holiday garbage bag is an often-overlooked hazard on Thanksgiving. The bag is likely full of hazardous-yet-tempting things for pets, including fatty scraps, toxic foods, coffee grounds, bones, and items that could be choked on. Since your pet can likely rip open a flimsy garbage bag with ease, it may be necessary to store the bag where your pet can’t gain access or put it inside a plastic container.

Holiday Treats

Planning on setting up a bowl of chocolate or candy treats for your guests? It’s important to keep your pet far away, because chocolate and candy are both very bad for animals. Chocolate contains theobromine and caffeine, chemicals that can prove toxic to pets, and candy is often sweetened with a pet-toxic artificial sugar known as xylitol. These aren’t the only things that could prove dangerous on Thanksgiving—contact Westside Animal Hospital, your Savannah, GA pet clinic, to find out about more potential dangers and how to keep your animal companion from harm.