Thanksgiving is a fun time for families–but with the extra food and cooking plus the extra hustle and bustle of guests, it can present certain dangers to your cat. Please take just a moment to keep these Thanksgiving safety tips for cats in mind as you go through your Thanksgiving holiday!
Also, be sure your guests know the house rules about your cats and how to help keep them safe.Every time we cook turkey, our cats go crazy. They love the smell of the baking turkey and want to crowd into the kitchen.
But we know that cats underfoot can spell disaster and we always plan our Thanksgiving cooking schedule so that the cats are either in our upstairs offices, in the bedroom, or in their catio.
We’ve received some great Thanksgiving safety tips from Wag’N Enterprises, a company that provides pet emergency management services to everyone from first responders to pet parents.
Keeping Your Cat Safe at Thanksgiving
Pets and children can cause you to trip while holding heavy hot food. Cats may also be tempted to jump on counters which may lead to burns as they may plunge paws on hot stove tops/burners and in some cases may singe fur and lead to burns on other body parts.
And at the risk of sounding repetitive, keep kids and pets away from candles!!
By keeping your pet’s routine unchallenged you will be able to mitigate the most common Thanksgiving emergency veterinarian visits.
Feed your cat before the big family meal and away from guests to reduce stress and disturbance. Holidays are no time to make sudden dietary changes!
Thanksgiving Foods to Avoid
Avoid feeding your cat rich, fatty foods (turkey skins, gravy, etc,) as they can contribute to pancreatitis. This inflammation of the digestive gland is painful and can be serious-requiring emergency veterinary assistance.
Additional pet hazards include:
- Baking/meat strings
- onions found in your stuffing (may lead to anemia if consumed by dogs)
- grapes and raisins (can lead to kidney failure)
- sage and essential oils
- tin foil
- cellophane candy wrappers
- toothpicks
- coffee and coffee grind
- alcohol
- Xylitol sweetener
- sweets
- chocolate
Children and adults in your household should be reminded of how dangerous candy and chocolate can be to pets.
All pets should wear up-to-date pet tags and be micro chipped before guests start showing up. If for any reason your cat escapes and gets lost, a collar and tags and/or a microchip can increase the chances the cat will be swiftly reunited with its family.
Set Aside a Room for Your Cat.
It is important that your cat has a quiet place to get a time out or take a nap away from holiday guest, friends and family.
Train your guests to your household rules.
Wag’N highly recommends pet parents keep important life saving phone numbers both in their cell phone registry and displayed on paper copy in a prominent well traveled area of the residence.
Poison Control Phone Numbers
Important numbers include:
- your emergency veterinarian’s phone number
- the ASPCA Poison Control Center number, (888) 426-4435
- Pet Poison Helpline, (855) 764-7661
- the Poison Control number, (800) 222-1222.
A few minutes of preparation are so much better than a rush to the animal emergency clinic on Thanksgiving or a desperate search for a lost cat. Please stay safe and happy Thanksgiving to everyone!
Pin it to remember these Thanksgiving safety tips!
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