Tips For A Harm Free, Healthy Holiday Season With Your Pet

Around Thanksgiving and the holidays, time is usually spent visiting with family and friends, with the inevitable hustle and bustle of the season.

People are streaming into the house, providing loving cuddles for your pet and often good food (but perhaps not good for them)! Be sure to have a plan for your pet ready before your guests arrive.

Kitchen & Food Safety

Pets have very sensitive noses and can pick up scents before a human can, so don’t be surprised when you have four paws under you while cooking.

Though your pet may just be waiting for a snack to fall from a plate or bowl, it is dangerous for pets to be in the kitchen with sharp utensils and hot surfaces around. Pets can unfortunately receive burns from hot dishes and drippings accidentally spilled on the floor.

Use a baby gate or seclude your pet from cooking areas while you are cooking dinner.

Just Say No to Scraps

Most holiday human food is very rich and never a good idea to feed to your pets, but there are times when Fluffy or Fido seem to get a table scrap or two in their paws. Turkey and ham bones are bad for pets because of their sharp edges and the splinters that they produce, which can cause serious digestive damage. Try giving your pet an irresistible toy instead to keep their mind distracted from turkey dinner.

Not only are bones bad for pets, but drippings as well. Turkey and ham drippings can cause digestive upset in animals, leading to symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea. Also, an ice cube is a fun way to keep your pet distracted; they will see it is from the refrigerator and will think they are getting something special without the side effects of human food.

To promote healthy digestion, try Digestive Support™ and to promote healthy, firm stool formation, try RuniPoo Relief™.

Banish Bad Behavior

In addition to digestive problems, you should resist feeding pets turkey tidbits to manage behavioral issues, as well. Though it is tempting, treats can cause unsatisfactory behavior for more dinners to come, as dinnertime begging can be a hard habit to break in pets.

Begging for food may be cute with you and your family, but when guests are in the house, it becomes bothersome and embarrassing. Before dinner, try to tell your guests not to feed your pet under the table, and keep an eye on little ones that can’t help but give in to sad pet eyes.

You may want to seclude your pet into their own separate room around dinnertime. To promote good behavior, leave your pet with snacks and toys and even some music playing in the background. Before the holidays, try scheduling your pet for obedience classes to help ensure good behavior for your guests on Thanksgiving.

Also, keep in mind that increased activity and traffic in the house may upset your pet’s demeanor and disrupt your pets’ routine. Continue to keep your pets on the same feeding and exercise schedule during the holidays to help promote a relaxed atmosphere.

To support behavior modification efforts, try Problem Pet Solution

Question:
"My puppy is 8 months old and has been sick on and off since Thanksgiving. The vet seems to think that our puppy is not able to digest his food. He is currently on four meds. Each time we switched his food, we did it slowly and properly, and only change one thing at a time, as you would with a food allergy. We are really worried that he is more sick than we realize and that he is missing out on a lot of good nutrition that he needs as a puppy - regardless of the type of food we give him. We're afraid he's going to have more health issues when he becomes a full grown dog. Help!"
– Carleen

Answer:
We recommend Digestive Support™, a 100% herbal remedy specially formulated to help pets who suffer from chronic digestive conditions. Digestive Support contains three carefully chosen herbs in therapeutic dosage to soothe and protect the digestive system.

Also try RuniPoo Relief™, a 100% herbal remedy that promotes firm stool formation and healthy bowel functioning, plus soothes the stomach. You can use these remedies together with the medicine that the vet has given him quite safely.

The PetAlive team