Give Your Pet the Perfect Holiday Gift This Year: Safety
The holidays can pose unique dangers to the family pet. Here’s some safeguards to follow to keep your pets safe.
| 16 Dec 2024 | 12:25
While he was still in veterinary school, Dr. Leshanski recalls on Christmas eve treating a dog that had swallowed a tiny baby Jesus statuette from a family’s Nativity scene. (
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Dr. Jonahtan Leshanski says he’s treated a cat whose tail accidentally caught on fire after as walked away from investigation a small burning candle. (
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Dr. Jonathan Leshanski warns that the holidays pose new dangers to the well being of pets. (
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In his 28 years as a veterinarian, Dr. Jonathan Leshanski has treated everything from tarantulas to elephants. But it was an ordinary family dog that presented one of the more eye-opening incidents of his early career.
Dr. Leshanski was still in vet school in Oklahoma, working the overnight shift in an animal hospital on Christmas, when a dog was brought into the emergency room in great distress. When the rookie veterinarian and his senior colleagues treated the frantic animal, they discovered that the dog had swallowed the tiny baby Jesus figurine from the family’s Nativity scene. Fortunately, they were able to save the dog’s life, but Dr. Leshanski went away from the experience with a heightened sense of the dangers the holidays can pose for pets.
Dr. Leshanski almost exclusively helps dogs and cats these days in Manhattan and nearby areas, working as a popular mobile-phone home vet. (If Fido or Fluffy has a health problem, Dr. Leshanski will come to see them, rather than the other way around.) And every year, he receives a spike in calls concerning family pets who have stumbled into one of the preventable holiday traps that vets know too well. “People sometimes forget that animals don’t understand the same things about festivities that we do,’ he says.
The risks can be as commonplace as the Christmas tree itself. Says Dr. Leshanski, “One of the biggest problems is that animals want to drink the water at the base of people’s live Christmas trees, which can be lethal.” The water at the bottom of the tree should therefore be carefully covered with something like tin foil or plastic. Likewise, he warns, a dog or cat may lunge for a glittery light or ornament on the tree and have the tree fall on top of it. So, the tree should always be firmly secured.
Holiday candles can be dangerous as well. “A big fire is scary to most animals, but they’re not sure what to make of a little tiny one” says Dr. Leshanski. “Most of the time, they investigate, decide they don’t like it, and walk away. But cats can be very careless with their tails, and I’ve seen cats catch their tails on fire by not paying attention.”
Sometimes, the danger comes from traditional holiday plants and flowers. The list of poisonous ones this time of year is long, says Dr. Leshanski, and includes poinsettias, ivy, holly and mistletoe. Lilies are particularly dangerous, especially for cats; even a little pollen from a lily can kill them. Likewise, certain seasonal foods such as chocolate, grapes, onions and garlic can poison your pet. Since some pets are prone to digging in the trash, it is essential that garbage be tightly sealed or hidden. Well-meaning guests at holiday parties may also inadvertently endanger pets by feeding them toxic foods, so it may be advisable (if sad) to keep your pet away from the action.
Nobody wants to make a holiday visit to an animal hospital. But if the worst happens, says Dr. Leshanski, act quickly. “In most cases, if your animal is getting into something toxic, you’re better safe than sorry in getting them to somewhere that can treat them,” he advises. “If they’ve ingested a string, or a piece of ribbon or tape, and they’re acting at all unusual, I would take them in and get them checked. Most of the time, things like this will pass, but in the times that they don’t, they can really be deadly.”
Both the ASPCA and the Humane Society offer free holiday guides online for pet owners.
Pet owners can also contact two 24/7 hotline numbers: the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center at 888-426-4435 and the Animal Poison Control Center at 855-764-7661.