Holidays are tons of fun, for humans. We spend time indulging in treats, cherishing family and friends, and celebrating. Whether you plan to commit to a New Year’s resolution or not, you’ve already made the wise decision to commit to your furry family members. We’ve compiled some safety tips to ensure your New Year doesn’t mean new pets, unless you’re just adding on. And, if that’s the case, we may know someone who can help with that too! *wink, wink*
- The first step is ensuring your pets are microchipped and their information is up to date. If your pet gets out or lost, even if they’re scanned for a microchip it won’t be helpful if the chip has an outdated phone number!
- Keep pets indoors. With lots of celebrations, pets can be easily spooked by yelling, noisemakers, fireworks, and in some places gunshots. Don’t give your pets the opportunity to jump a fence, slip a leash, or chew through a fence due to anxiety by keeping them indoors.
- Keep pets contained. Not only is it a good plan to keep pets indoors, but gives them a safe place inside as well. This can be a closed-off room, closet, crate, etc., as long as they don’t have access to opening doors during times of stress.
- Speaking of stress from noises, you can reduce this in pets by making the area you keep them as calm as possible. You can make sure they have a comfortable place to lay, items to occupy them like toys or treats, playing calming music or using white noise machines, or even items of clothing that smell like their family can be soothing. Other options include lavender oil for dogs or Feliway sprays for cats.
- Need other ideas for keeping pets occupied? Leave your pup with a nice peanut butter-filled, frozen Kong, or your cat would surely love it if you sprayed some toys with catnip spray. Buying them a couple of new items may also help hold their attention a bit longer.
- Even pets not spooked by the noise can be in danger if not supervised around noisemakers, fireworks, and other items. Prevent injuries, burns, or possible ingestion by keeping these items, and other household hazards, out of reach of pets.
- Heading out for the evening? Be sure to spend some time with your pet playing or exercising beforehand. Give them plenty of attention and help tire them out to help reduce the chances of anxiety once you leave. This can include taking dogs on runs or longer walks, fetch, or tug of war, and lots of laser pointer time or feather wands for cats.
- We hope this one’s a given, but please be sure to keep any alcohol consumption to two-legged friends and family. Alcohol can be poisonous to both dogs and cats leading to low blood pressure, vomiting, excessive drooling, distended abdomen, dry heaving, collapsing, comas, and even death.
- Right along with our friend alcohol, some foods shouldn’t be consumed. Fatty foods can cause digestive issues, nothing that’s been prepared or soaked in alcohol, and bones leftover from your meal could cause broken jaws or intestinal tears if consumed by pets.
- Lastly, if you know your neighborhood will be too chaotic for your pets, consider taking a little road trip to someplace familiar but quieter for a few days, if you have no concerns about your pet on the road.
We wish everyone a happy and safe New Year and hope you now have the tools to do so for your furry family members too!