Thanksgiving Safety Tips You Should Know for Dogs and Cats

As pet parents, preparing for your Thanksgiving celebration often has more work to do and more things to be noticed than others. Besides your signature meals for your friends and family, you also need to make something special to spoil your pets and look out for safety concerns during the party.

Since we drown in the holiday pressure, we may forget our dogs and cats also need to get some heads-up preparation for the upcoming holidays. So to make sure the Thanksgiving party this year runs smoothly, here are a few helpful Thanksgiving safety tips focusing on keeping your pets healthy and joyful.

Thanksgiving is the best time of the year when all we want to do is to enjoy the delicious feast. We often come up with new ideas for dishes in the dinner menu to surprise your guests and your furry babies as well. But the following food-related issues you should take a look at carefully, especially to the paw buddies.

• Serve Turkey right: It is not Thanksgiving without Turkey. And if you plan to feed your pets turkey, you’ll need to make sure it’s all well-cooked and boneless. Raw turkey often contains salmonella bacteria that can make your pet ill, get fever and vomit.
• Say No to certain desserts, especially dough and pie: The most famous ingredient in our favorite dessert is chocolate. But sadly, chocolate is toxic to dogs and cats. So place your dessert tray somewhere high or tricky for them not to sneak, sniff and then warp a bite eventually. Also, don’t spoil your pet and let them try a piece of raw yeast dough. The yeast will interact with sugar and turn it into carbon dioxide gas and alcohol, resulting in life-threatening situations for your pets.

• Watch out for decorating plants: Many festive plants and flowers are poisonous to pets. You can check out the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) list of plants dangerous to dogs and cats to see whether your plants at home are on the list or not and take action accordingly. This will help us know how to arrange decorative plants in the house reasonably.
• Keep trash out of pet reach: If you leave your turkey bones and other food leftovers in the open or easy-to-open trash can, your pet will easily sneak a bite. Eating bones and other full-of-seasoned foods from your party will cause diarrhea, choking and vomiting to your pets. Also, if your pet swallows strings, packages, and other inedible things in the trash, it may be harmful to their health.

There will be more people coming to your house when the holidays come. Some of them might already be familiar with your pets, but some are still new or don’t even know about their appearance in your house.

So a little heads-up notice to your guests will be essential for the party to happen beautifully for everyone.

• Greeting appropriately: Depending on your pet’s characteristics, their interaction with new people will be different. Some pets are shy and even nervous when seeing a big crowd with all the noises. They might have some defensive actions towards strangers. So you can consider putting your pet in a different room provided with their favorite toys and treats, or hold your furry baby in your embrace and slowly introduce it to everyone.
• Keep the door closed: Since your guests enter and leave the house all the time during the Thanksgiving party, the doors are often left open for easier movement. However, this is a great chance for your pet to run out and get lost. Even if your pets are more comfortable with the guests, you still need to watch them out carefully.

• Check the visitors’ health condition in advance: It’ll be great and safe to tell your guests ahead about the pets at home if they are pregnant or under any special treatments or medications that suppress their immune systems. This helps the guest prepare essential protection for themselves as well as reduce any unwanted surprise.

In case you want to bring your pets to go to your special person’s house to spend the Thanksgiving holiday, you should make sure to get some essential preparation for your furry friends.

• Get your pets' necessary check-up and traveling certificate. This is extremely important if you want to travel across the state or even abroad. Each state will have different requirements about pet arrivals, so make an appointment with your veterinarian to get their advice and the needed papers for your travel.
• Make sure your pet has a comfortable place during the movement. If you want to drive both of you guys to the destination, you should prepare the necessary items for a long drive. Also, check out the back seats to ensure your pet feels comfy and enjoys the driving. They also may get carsick, so don’t feed your pet too much before and during the drive.
• Consult a veterinarian if this is your first time traveling with pets. Being a pet parent means you’ll get a chance to learn new things about them every day. So the best practice is to get yourself a reliable veterinarian. It’ll help you get the appropriate preparations and what medicine you should bring if your pet gets food poison or carsick. Also, taking care of your pet before, during and after the drive is super essential to learn more.

Enjoying a happy and safe Thanksgiving celebration is everyone’s wish, especially with pet parents. It’s always more overwhelming to take care of both humans and pets before, during, and after the party.

Hopefully, with some useful tips above, you can save your precious time and handle all the potential situations that might happen effortlessly.

Don’t forget to check out our guide to celebrate Thanksgiving fascinatingly, in which you can find the best ideas for decorations and fashion up you and your furry friends.