GV Vets owner and veterinarian Brett Davis says feeding your pet a few bits of food here and there is okay, but says to be watchful of food-driven and opportunistic pets, especially dogs, who will do the rounds, sneaking a bit of everyone’s lunch.
He especially warns against feeding your pets foods with a high-fat content, like sausages. And with bigger dogs, watch they don’t raid the bin for barbecue scraps.
“Anything that’s a little bit too fatty can spark up pancreatitis, which can be a potentially life-threatening condition,” Dr Davis said.
Depending on the severity of the pancreatitis, they may just get a sore tummy, or they could end up in the dog hospital on an IV drip, a procedure that Dr Davis warns gets very expensive.
Relatives need to be watched too so they don’t feed your Pomeranian its body weight in Christmas ham.They’re not the ones who have to clean up the aftermath of your pet’s upset tummy.
Older generations especially may not know that feeding cooked bones to pets can be dangerous.
According to Dr Davis, because they’ve been doing it for years, getting away with it “999 times out of 1000”, they may not see any problem with it.
“Quite a few cases we’ve had people come in, their dog’s eaten like a whole chicken carcass. Cooked chicken bones are one of the worst bones you can feed a dog,” he said.
“The one time it’s caused trouble, it’s caused major trouble. We’re talking bones penetrating through the intestinal tract.”
Another thing to keep in mind is grape toxicity. Most dogs can tolerate a few grapes, but for some sensitive canines it only takes one for them to be off to the vet.
“Avoid that risk and keep them away from grapes; dried grapes, sultanas, raisins,” Dr Davis said.
And if you’re looking to get your pet a Christmas treat, Dr Davis reminds people to buy their treats from a trusted source.
He said there was some evidence to suggest that cheap and trendy Christmas treats that were heavily processed weren’t great for your pet.
“They might be dyed in red or green in Christmas colours and look really cool and attractive, and cheap. But some of these treats can be linked to quite rare conditions,” he said.
He said it was better to stick with natural treats like a bone or a bit of cooked chicken.
And try to make sure the dog doesn’t make off with a whole ham or find their way into a stocking full of chocolate.
Christmas chocolates are a big one that your pets can make themselves sick on.
“Chocolate is toxic, but white chocolate less so, milk chocolate the middle and dark chocolate the worst,” Dr Davis said.
“We have a calculator that we use to work out where it’s something you need to be worried about or not.”
And if you’re going out fishing, don’t leave your baited hooks unattended.
“(People will) put the bait on the hook and have a heap of them set up and ready to go and the dog gets into them — or even off the end of a line,” he said.
“Where big problems come about is if the line get pulled on.”
