Poisonous Items That Could Harm Your Dog This Holiday Season

The holidays are a time for family and cheer. A poisoned pet can ruin all of that. It can also be prevented if you know what to look for. If you have a pet and are also having guests over for the holidays, make sure to let your guests know ahead of time not to feed your dog or cat. Hosting is a busy job, so it can be difficult to monitor what your furry friend is stealing off plates.

The danger of some holiday items may be exaggerated when it comes to putting them around pets. Poinsettias get a bad reputation all the time for being deadly to cats and dogs. Make no mistake, they are still poisonous, but the plant’s toxicity has been exaggerated. The plant’s toxin is found in its milky-white sap and causes mild vomiting and drooling. But while poinsettias look beautiful and festive sitting out in your house around the holidays, the cheery decor isn’t worth it if it’s harmful to your cat or dog. Be aware of this and other harmful items during the holidays.

1. Fruitcake

Okay, we doubt anyone is just itching to go out and buy fruitcake. But, unfortunately, your great aunt Mildred still stays true to the infamous … brick? We don’t know what to properly call it. Either way, you can’t feed it to the dog, so just suck it up and swallow it down. Fruitcake contains raisins and currants, which can cause kidney failure and irreversible damage. Whether they are eaten on their own or baked into food doesn’t matter. Ingested any way can be dangerous.

2. Avocados

If guacamole is part of your holiday routine, take extra care to keep it away from your dog. Every part of an avocado is dangerous to dogs, from the skin to the flesh and the pit. When eaten, an avocado causes your dog trouble breathing, congestion, vomiting and diarrhea or fluid buildup in their chest.

3. Alcohol

Don’t leave your drink sitting out! If there’s a dog around, chances are they will help themselves and lap up your gingerbread martini. If it tastes good to you, it tastes really good to them. But just because it tastes good doesn’t mean it’s good for them. Like in humans, alcohol can cause irreversible liver damage. But even worse, it changes your dog’s blood chemistry, making it too acidic and potentially causing them to go into cardiac arrest. Other dangerous symptoms include lowering heart rate, breathing and body temperature. If you’re drinking beer, hops add another dynamic to alcohol’s toxicity by raising the dog’s body temperature to an extreme high.

4. Bread Dough

If you’re one who likes to bake during the holidays, be careful around dough. The live yeast in the dough multiplies and expands in the dog’s stomach, causing the dog’s stomach to expand as well. This affects the blood flow to the stomach wall, which kills the tissue in the stomach. The expansion can also hurt the dog as well. If the stomach expands too much, it can press on the diaphragm, causing difficulty in breathing.

5. Chocolate

All dog guardians know this deadly treat. Anything with chocolate in it can be dangerous for a dog. This includes cocoa powder and cocoa shell-based mulches in addition to cookies, brownies, chocolate bars and candy. The caffeine and theobromine in the chocolate are what’s dangerous to dogs. These ingredients cause vomiting, abdominal discomfort, increased thirst, muscle tremors, irregular heart rhythm, seizures and death.

Green Monsters: If your dog does ingest a potentially poisonous item, make sure to not only know the signs, but have a list of poison control hotlines on hand. 

Image source: Y Nakanishi/Flickr