Avoid pet hazards during Easter

While the holidays can leave you with a warm and fuzzy glow, they add a lot of things to the daily mix of your life that might not be good for your pets.

This is what you need to know about common holiday pet hazards, and how to keep your dog or cat out of trouble.

1. Keep people food out of the reach of your pet, and ask your guests to do the same.

Chocolate is bad for pets, but ingredients in a lot of other holiday favourites can cause gastro-intestinal distress or poisoning too: garlic and onions at dinner, grapes from the cheese board and raisins often found in holiday cookies are just a few common foods to keep away from the pets.

2.To keep your pets totally safe from human food, keep them away from where food is being prepared and served. That includes the trash can, which cats and dogs can get into to dig out fatty scraps and bones.

3. Don’t leave your pet alone in the room with lit candles, as this could result in a fire.

4. Whether your pets are generally sociable or not, they can become over-excited or anxious with an endless stream of visitors. Consider giving them a safe place in the house where they can get away from all the strangers.

5. If you notice that your dog is having symptoms such as difficulty when it wants to excrete, or vomiting, or has stomach pain or lethargy, set up an appointment with your vet to make sure your pet has not eaten anything it should not have eaten.