Animal Care and Behavior

As pet parents your pets rely on you to protect and take care of them. Normally you should only feed your pets food and treats made for your kind of pet or fresh natural foods (that are agreeable with your pet pal). Some people food and drinks can make animals sick or worse, so keep an eye out and remember some pets can be a lot like kids.Take your eyes off them for to long and they can get into anything.

These are meant for guidelines for dogs and cats.

Examples:

- Alcohol

- Items that have caffeine

- Chocolate anything (Big no-no)

- Fatty foods (fried etc.)

- Chicken and turkey bones (beef and pork bones normally are fine just watch them when they have one and take it away if it starts to splinter).

Here are a few odd ones that most people aren't aware of:

- Grapes/raisins

- Onions

- Macadamia nuts

-Yeast dough

- Sugar

-Salt (or salty foods)

- Aspirin  (cats are more at risk)

There are many other things in or around your home can cause illness or even death in your pet. Here are some more examples:

- Bait for rodents (poison)

- Batteries (they can contain corrosive fluid)

- Fertilizer (depends on type but never a good idea to leave around so that they are able to get into it)

- Household cleaners (almost everyone of them)

- Nicotine products (if your dog happens to eat something with nicotine in it mix hydrogen peroxide 1/2 tsp and 1 tbs per 5-10 lbs of your dog) this will make them sick but won't last long. Provide water after you make sure they have got everything up and keep an eye on them. If they become overly hyper or continue to be ill over 30 mins. call your vet or the ER vet closest to you.

- Pesticides (bug control etc.)

- Plants that are toxic to pets (will write about these in another article but for now you can do a search on the web for them if you like).

- Pool chemicals (all of them)

For more information on what to do for a poisoned animal, what plants are poisonous visit the website on "Animal Poison Control Center."

If you suspect your pet has been poisoned and you need immediate assistance, call Animal Poison Control Center at (888) 426-4435.ASPCA. The nonprofit hot-line is staffed 24/7 by a team of veterinarians, including veterinary toxicologists.There is a donation fee however. Or call information for your local 24 hour emergency vet hospital.There at this point are no Poison Control Centers other then this that I have found. If anyone knows of one please post a comment and let us know.

Just make sure to take a look around your house, make sure anything you think could harm your pets is out of reach (so to speak), when in doubt don't give them a treat that you aren't sure about. When in doubt call you vet or ER vet (no question is silly or bad when it comes to looking out for your pets, better safe then sorry). Please don't "wait things out" to see if they get better. Most likely they will get worse. Being safe is what makes a good pet parent.