How to keep your pets safe this Easter season

Easter is coming up, and with it comes flowers, decorations, chocolates, and more. While these are all generally great things for families, veterinarian Dr. Jodi Viste with the Animal Care Centre warns of some dangers for our furry friends.

Cat Safety

One of the most fatal flowers for cats is the lily, as every part of the plant poses a serious threat to a cat's health. A small amount of pollen could cause life-threatening medical issues, as lilies cause serious kidney damage. While lily toxicosis is treatable if caught very early, Viste says if you have a cat you should avoid lilies altogether. There are several other flowers like daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, hydrangeas, and more, but by far the most dangerous is the lily. As far as the other flowers go, if ingested they could cause gastrointestinal issues, and Viste explained sometimes cats will eat them simply because they like the taste, so it's best to avoid these flowers if you have a cat.

Unlike a dog, cats are unlikely to eat hidden chocolates or candies, but Viste says they're more likely to eat small toys and objects.

"We take Nerf darts tips we take earplugs, we take Polly Pockets out of their intestine commonly that gets stuck in there. The very small items that cats like to eat, you have to be cautious of those so the little mini toys and the little mini plastic eggs and stuff like that are more harmful to them than something bigger, which sounds backwards, but it is."

Dog Safety

As far as dogs go, the most well-known threat is chocolate. Small amounts of milk chocolate will most likely be fine, but large amounts or dark chocolate with a lot of cocoa could be a threat. If you have these Viste says it's best to keep them somewhere a dog wouldn't be able to get them. She added grapes are toxic to dogs as well, so avoid chocolate with raisins if possible.

As for Easter egg hunts, if you're worried the dog might get to the chocolate before the kids you can take several precautionary steps to avoid this.

"If you know that your dog might eat all of the eggs up before the kids even start their hunt, then maybe wait and hide your eggs in a timely manner and lock your dog up for the duration of the Easter egg hunts."

Dogs especially are known to take every opportunity they can get for food, so Viste says it's quite important to keep an eye on them.

"Crazy things happen, we had one dog who ate eight Kinder Eggs, and they were nicely lined up in that stomach. Why a dog would eat all of them, we don't know, but he did, and we were successful in getting those eggs out of his stomach and putting the toys together after."

The X-ray scan of the dog who ate eight Kinder Eggs

The toys were still ok to be put together!

A lot of families celebrate Easter with a big dinner, and while it may be tempting to give your dog a treat with a few leftovers, some things like fatty meats should be avoided.

"The problem with it is it can cause an inflammation in the pancreas, and with that inflammation, in the pancreas, there's pain in the abdomen, inappetence, vomiting, diarrhea, and it can become a very serious illness for them. So I would avoid anything really fatty, if they want to feed like a piece of turkey breast that's not very fatty, that's much less likely to cause problems for their pets."

She added you should avoid giving your dog the bones as well, as cooked bones become very brittle and dry, meaning they could break and splinter quite easily.

Safety for both cats and dogs

In general, Viste strongly encourages everyone to keep a close eye on their pets, especially if they have many people over during the Easter break. She said it could be easy for someone to feed your pets without you knowing, so watch for signs of discomfort.

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