July 4th festivities can be troublesome if you have a particularly out-going pet who is right in the middle of the action!

A few tips:

1. Alcohol can be deadly for pets–keep all beverages out of paw’s way!

2. Although tempting, avoid giving scraps off the grill. They may be too rich for your pet or even cause burns inside the mouth. Also, some foods are downright toxic (like onions, avocados/guacamole, grapes, raisins, etc) and must be avoided.

3. Watch your pet carefully around pools and lakes–even expert swimmers can get into trouble. Consider life jackets if you are boating. Pets that decide to use the pool as their personal water bottle may experience stomach irritation and vomiting.

4. Monitor your pet around fire pits, candles and other sources of fire. The flame can be mesmerizing and you can have a five-alarm emergency before you realize it.

5. Avoid using sunscreen or bug repellents not intended for pets. Some human products can cause severe skin irritation and even seizure-like activity.

6. Most importantly, keep your pets indoors during the fireworks. Even well-behaved and calm pets can do crazy things with the loud unexpected boom of fireworks. Click here to read more about dealing with the anxiety of fireworks.

Happy 4th of July!

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 4th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Dr Donna Spector, Pet Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.