By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — With Christmas decorations a part of the holiday tradition, those who own pets need to take care that they are not harmed by the decorations.
“Cats, being playful by nature, anything that’s hanging or dangling from that tree will be an incentive to go play with or get in trouble with,” Dr. Randy Smith of Apple Lane Animal Hospital said. “We remove some foreign bodies from cats. Basically the tinsel, the long, stringy stuff.”
Cats also tend to climb trees, knock them over and can ingest ribbons on Christmas packages. Another decoration that can hurt animals is poinsettias.
“Poinsettias can be toxic to animals,” Smith said. Usually they are only mildly toxic because once they chew into that plant, it causes them to want to drool, lick their lips and find themselves trying to throw up because of the irritation.”
Smith also says to be careful what kind of preservative you put in the water if you have a live tree. The preservative could be toxic to animals. And like Thanksgiving, try to keep people-food away from pets.
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