Holiday caution!!!

[RWDVM]

Dear friends:

As a vet, some of my busiest days of the year are those that immediately follow holidays. Why? DIETARY INDESCRETION! People often think that they are doing the dog a favor by allowing it to participate in the gluttony of a holiday meal. Some even go as far as to give the dogs dessert and even (amazingly enough!) turkey or chicken bones to chew on. Please don't do this. Holiday food, especially dessert, is far too rich for dogs to process properly. This kind of food shocks the dog's system and has the potential to cause big problems. Bones get lodge and/or pierce the GI tract. Here are some of the many conditions I see after holidays (all of which I have seen since this past Thanksgiving):

-Colitis
-diarrhea
-vomiting
-bloat - potentially a life threatening surgical condition if the stomach twists secondary to the bloat.
-pancreatitis - potentially life threatening
-bones lodged in the GI tract- absolutely life threatening

Be sure to exercise caution. Keep a close eye on children and Grandma - these are the two biggest culprits in feeding the dogs holiday food. If you absolutely cannot live with yourself if the dog doesn't get a little something, give a small amount of turkey or chicken breast with some vegetables. Keep the portions small and avoid ham, high fat or high carbohydrate foods, and especially avoid dessert. Be smart, and you won't have to spend your holiday at an emergency vet clinic.

Happy holidays!

Roger L. Welton, DVM
Veterinarian, Webmaster http://www.askdvm.com

[cashnbecky]

Dr. Welton, thanks for the heads up. I made that very mistake a few years ago with my elderly male springer. We trimmed the raw fat off some meat and fed it to him. Of course, he loved it and pigged out. Within hours he was violently ill. He dug a ditch in the backyard and laid in it like a grave. Sure enough, the diagnosis was pancreatitus. We could no longer feed him fat of any kind and had to feed him a special no fat diet. He lived another year and a half but was miserable. He acted like he couldn't get enough to eat of anything. He started having convulsions one evening and the last seizure just went on and on for, who knows how long. We ended the seizure with two shots of valium AND a valium suppository just to get him to get still. He was 15 and so ill, we made the decision right then to put him down. The vet said that for every minute of convulsion it would take 24 hours to recover. He would have never made it.

So again thanks for the advice...it is REAL.

[krazy4birds]

Oh Becky...what a horrible thing for you to watch let alone what your dog was feeling. I am sooo sooo sorry. This is a very good piece of advice and for everyone to take seriously! I do not have a dog now but we had a toy poodle for 14 years and how well I know about Grandma and kids sneaking "treats" to Peppi. It got to where I quit taking him to holiday dinners for his own safety. We had a outside dog that just passed on a few months ago. He was 12. Everytime the grandkids were over....same thing...I was mean grandma a few times...lol...but they thought "Jazzbo" would love their candy too....
Thank you Dr. Welton for bringing this subject up and so appropiate at this time of year.