By Dr. Laura Hady
The Halloween season can be a truly dangerous time for our beloved pets. Certain foods, poisons, and pests that are common in October put their health at risk. The following are my five top tips to help your pets stay safe this fall.
- Safety in the dark. As the days get shorter, we may be out with our pets in little to no light. Wearing reflective clothing, putting reflective harnesses on dogs (and cats that walk on leashes), and carrying lights all help oncoming cars to see you and enable you to better watch for loose animals and potholes. I wear a headlamp and attach a flashlight to my dog’s reflective harnesses and collars. Don’t let cats outside without a leash to prevent loss due to coyotes, vehicles, and Halloween tricksters.
- Avoid trick-or-treat candies and chocolates. Halloween is one of the busiest holidays for veterinary poison control hotlines. Keep your child’s stash up and away from pets so that they don’t have any opportunity to eat chocolate (especially dark chocolate), candies containing the sugar replacement xylitol, and any treat with increased levels of fat.
Theobromine is the active ingredient in chocolate that causes restlessness, increased heart rate, diarrhea, and vomiting. Xylitol (also under the name of birch sugar) is a popular human sugar replacement found in chewing gum, toothpaste, candies, and baked goods. It can cause low blood sugar with secondary seizures, and liver and kidney failure in pets even at with consumption as small as .05 grams per pound of body weight. One stick of chewing gum containing xylitol can kill a small dog.
If your dog or cat does consume chocolate and you cannot reach an emergency clinic to find if your pet consumed enough to be critically harmful, use the free Chocolate Toxicity calculator from vetcalculators.com. If you cannot get to a clinic rapidly and the pet has ingested the chocolate recently, use a 3 percent hydrogen peroxide solution and dilute 1:1 with water to force your pet to vomit. In other words, mix 1 teaspoon hydrogen peroxide and 1 teaspoon water. Use 1 teaspoon per five pounds of dog weight, but no more than 15 teaspoons for dogs over 45 pounds. It may take 15 minutes for the animal to vomit. You can repeat the dose once at that time, but not again.
- Minimize exposure to spider bites. Just because the days are cooler doesn’t mean that spiders are gone. In fact, fall is a primary egg-laying time for spiders such as the wolf spider, brown recluse, and yellow garden spider. Spiders may hang out in garden gloves, woodpiles, leaves, and near water valves. My puppies and cats are very curious about anything that moves and often try to eat them. Phone apps and exterminators may help you identify which pests are still in your garden and whether or not they are venomous. If swelling or discoloration of the skin, discharge, reduced appetite, or fever are noted in your pet, contact your family veterinarian or emergency vet to get the proper exam, anti-inflammatories, pain medication, possible antibiotic treatment and wound management.
- Beware of alkaline and lithium batteries that pose a threat to pets. These products are in many electronics that our pets have access to in the household. Alkaline batteries are found in flashlights, TV remotes, and children’s toys. When bitten by a pet, the products’ alkaline base can cause ulcerations on the tongue and throat, and in the stomach. Symptoms include increased salivation, vomiting, and refusal to eat. Lithium found in cell phones and in disc batteries can cause not only sparks and fires when bitten into, but also severe breakdown of the esophagus and stomach tissue within as little as 15-30 minutes of contact. Calling the 24-hour Pet Poison Helpline at (855) 764-7661 or the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435 can provide beneficial information for you to help your pet even before you can make it to an emergency veterinary clinic.
A few additional solutions to keep pets safe this fall include handing out low-fat dog treats for dogs that trick-or-treat with families, keeping veterinary emergency numbers in contact lists, and reviewing with dogs the “leave it” or “drop it” commands.
