By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Dr. Jon Austin, DVM notes that it is important not to include your pet in the people food at holiday gatherings.
"With the holidays coming here, we're going to have lots of gatherings of people and wonderful treats and food to eat," Austin said. "It's always a situation where the pets can get involved either intentionally or accidentally and get into things that are too much for them."
Fatty food can be particularly dangerous.
"Things like gravy, turkey carcasses, things like that are going to be prevalent here soon with thanksgiving meals, they're going to be hard on animals who are not used to eating a lot of fat," Austin said. "That's the most common problem that we see in our pets shortly after the holidays or during the holidays is that they've gotten into either a plate that someone gave them, not knowing that it was dangerous, or the family was at the table and the big dog in the kitchen got up on the counter and got into the turkey carcass and got the grease and the drippings and all of that and just overloaded their system."
Eating too much fat can cause inflammation of the pancreas or infection in animals if it isn't caught quickly. If you happen to catch them in the act, you can help.
"If you're there within a close time from when it occurred, when they ate it, you can get them to vomit," Austin said. "We'll often have people use hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting in their pets and you just take a, depends on the size of the animal, typically for a bigger dog, they're going to require maybe eight to twelve ounces to make them vomit. You just have to get the peroxide into their stomach."
Obviously, you want to call your veterinarian if you are forced to use these measures, so they can monitor the dog in case it happens too late.