"Things To Think About This Holiday Season"
As aired with host Mary Ann Orate on "Good Day New Mexico"

The Christmas tree, in and of itself can be harmful. Ingested needles may not be toxic but sure can make for an upset tummy or get stuck literally in the throat, making for a lot of coughing and gagging.

Fresh trees need water. Dogs love to drink water, even from puddles or toilets, so tree water, while minty fresh, is not good for dogs because of the content from the sap.
Don’t decorate your tree while pooch is watching. It’s like planting while the dog is watching, they think you put up the tree with all the pretty toys hanging for them to take off!

Never mind the glass decorations that can break in their mouths, or fall and break for them to step on a cut themselves, they even make non breakable ornaments for our furry friends but some of your bigger dogs will put them in their mouth anyway and can swallow them causing a blockage and high vet bills!
Better to always let the dog or cat investigate the tree while you are there and whenever you are not present the animals do no have access to the tree.

Tinsel is hard to come by these days, which is really good for a number or reasons, but mainly, Tinsel, or known as called icicles, can be ingested and get caught in dog or cats throats, or ingested in quantities that can also cause intestinal blockage.
Puppies/kittens can chew light cords and get electrocuted or start a fire. Even if they don’t do any of these things mentioned, a puppy or dog grabbing at an ornament or candy cane that won’t come off the tree easily will cause the pup to pull the branch the branch won’t come but down comes the whole tree on the pup or dog and could injure them that way, not to mention really make a mess.
Snow Globe, some people have collections of these whimsical decorations, the liquid that fills snow globs is similar to anti-freeze, which we all know not only is sweet tasting to dogs and cats but deadly. So a snow globe collection is better put out of reach from counter surfers, etc.

Moving on to food and plants:

• Common plants this time of year to that are toxic to either dog/cats or both
  
• Amaryllis
  
• Mistletoe
  
• Some Holly, especially berries can cause lowered blood pressure
  
• Chinese evergreen
  
• Christmas Rose
  
• According to ASPCA’s website which contains a pretty extensive list of toxic and non-toxic plants and trees they say the myth has perpetuated over the years about the lovely Poinsettia plant; other than mild gastrointestinal upset which might some drooling, vomiting or diarrhea, will not be fatal to your pets, which is true even cats if ingest it. But hey let’s keep an eye on the animals anyway from getting into household plants period.

Foods to avoid this holiday season:

• Macadamia Nuts
  
• Onions raw
  
• Dark or Bakers Chocolate
  
• Grapes and Raisins ,dried fruit period
  
• Unbaked dough, yeast dough – expands, can cause bloat
  
• Nutmeg
  
• And as far as gifts go!!!!! Take it from experience, while it may look festive to have tons of presents under the tree, if you have a rowdy rover…wait until Christmas Eve to put them under the tree and keep the magic of santa alive for all involved!!!