This may be a bit redundant after my last post but no holiday would truly be happy if we had to make an unexpected run to the local vet due to a serious illness of one of our pet companions. Since my last post we seen several seriously ill pets, some of which required life saving surgery, as a result of ingestion of spoiled foods, inappropriate foods or dangerous foreign material that was ingested. A 6 month old pup came to us with a life threatening intestinal obstruction as the result of a corn cob that was ingested around Thanksgiving. A one year old Beagle pup was presented with a 24 hour duration of vomiting. His gastric upset occurred after ingestion of carpeting, strings, paper clips and a staples. Though several areas of the stomach and intestine were damaged he is now doing well. Two feline housemates jumped up on the counter and feasted on an unattended turkey carcass that had been left out overnight after Thanksgiving. Both developed a very nasty case of food poisoning and required several days of hospitalization to recover. We hospitalized a very seriously ill Boxer with pancreatitis after the owner shared some pork roast with her best friend not realizing that many dogs do not digest pork products well. Multiple calls of chocolate ingestion, ribbon swallowing and vomiting pets have also been fielded by our staff. Many of these pets have required exams, x-rays, blood work and IV fluids. These calls seem to be considerably more common this year than in the past.

It appears that this holiday season is being greeted by all of us with joy, happiness and downright fun. Just remember to be aware that much of what enhances this holiday season for us can harm our pets. Please have a Happy, Healthy and especially Safe Holiday Season and New Year. Be aware that anything that our pets can find to satisfy their hunger or sense of adventure they will indeed find. We hope to hear from all of our friends AFTER the holidays with only positive memories of 2014.