Safety Archives - Page 3 of 5

National Chip Your Pet Month

Pierre: Hey, everybody. Did you know that May is National Chip your Pet Month?

Ashton: Chip your pet? Where? When can we start? I love corn chips! Potato chips too!

Pierre: They don’t mean corn chips. they mean microchips, Ashton. You have one, and so do I. They are to help us in case we get lost. The American Humane Association (AHA) estimates that over ten million dogs and cats are lost or stolen in the United States every year. One in three pets are lost during their life at some point.

Ashton: Those are scary numbers! I don’t want to be lost! I’ll miss the potato chips!

Pierre: A study by the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association shows:

52% of microchipped dogs were reunited with an owner versus 22% of unchipped dogs
38% of microchipped cats were reunited with an owner versus 2% of unchipped cats

Ashton: So having a chip means that a lost cat or dog has a better chance of getting home again?

Pierre: It does. We shouldn’t rely on it alone. The AHA recommends that pets wear collars as a primary means of identification. It says right on their web page: “All cats and dogs need to wear collars with ID tags, rabies vaccination tags and city or county licenses (where applicable).” Collars let anyone who finds a lost cat or dog to help them get home by just reading the tag and calling the number on it.

Ashton: So microchips are a like a backup for a collar and tag, since they don’t fall off, and they last a lifetime?

Pierre: That’s right. Even if your we are completely indoor cats, unexpected disasters can strike, like scary weather. Many pets were reunited with owners after hurricane Katrina only because of the microchips they carried. Some as many as five years later!

Ashton: What are people waiting for? They should get microchips now. And potato chips, too.

Pierre: Many shelters, humane societies, and veterinarians have special pricing on microchips for your cat or dog during May in honor of Chip Your Pet Month, so if you’re thinking about getting a chip for your pet, this could be a cost-effective time to do it. Just remember that getting the chip inserted is the first step, and registering the chip is the second step. Without doing both, no one knows how to call you if your pet is lost.

Ashton: And if they don’t know who to call, your cat can never get home in time for potato chips.

Pierre: I think this diet has gone to your brain.

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Don’t Eat That: Onions

Ashton: I love to eat the stuff the peeps eat. Turning on the cute to get some of their food is kind of an art form. Watch me go at the dinner table!

And it works every time. Who can resist that face? SCORE!

But listen up, peeps, this is important: No matter how much I beg, or your cat begs, you shouldn’t feed anything that contains onions. They can cause Heinz body anemia. A Heinz body is damaged hemoglobin inside your kitty’s red blood cells. It’s something that can only be seen with a microscope, but you can see symptoms like:

Fever
Sudden onset of weakness
Loss of appetite (anorexia)
Reddish brown urine (in severe cases)
Pale mucous membranes (mouth area, for example)
Skin discoloration

Heinz bodies can form from cats ingesting raw, cooked, or dehydrated onions or scallions.

Foods you don’t think about having onions or onion powder may have enough to trigger this dangerous condition.

Although baby food is often suggested as a means of getting sick cats to eat, many companies started adding onion powder to baby food recipes in 1995. One study found that as little as 0.3% onion powder in a feline diet resulted in Heinz body formation. This means that “Oh, a little won’t hurt” isn’t true at all. Small quantities of onions aren’t recommended for cats, period.

References:
Heinz Body Anemia In Cats, Jaime Tarigo-Martinie, DVM; Paula Krimer, DVM, DVSc
Anemia Due to Red Blood Cell Damage in Cats
Image “Onion_8174068” by Dubravko Sorić CC-BY-2.0

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Just Say No to Lilies

The head peep’s favorite flower has always been the stargazer lily. She loves how they look and especially how they smell.

But we can’t even have them in the house. Do you know why?

If you said it’s because stargazer lilies are poisonous to cats, you’re right. She knows that if there are flowers in the house, we absolutely must have the taste. It doesn’t matter how where she puts them. Cats can jump five times their height, so it’s hard to find anywhere safe to put toxic flowers.

This is especially important this time of year, since the tradition of Easter lilies can be a dangerous one for the cats in your house.

According to the pet poison helpline, some lilies are more dangerous than others, but even the least dangerous lilies cause tissue irritation in the mouth, tongue, pharynx, and esophagus, causing drooling, foaming and pawing at the mouth, and vomiting. And those are the less dangerous lilies! The potentially fatal lilies, including the Easter lily, can cause acute kidney failure if cats eat only two or three petals, or even if they just drink the water from the vase.

Instead of listing which lilies are more dangerous than others, it stands to reason that the best thing that you an do is just avoid having lilies around cats entirely. The risk is just too high.

We are indoor kitties, so we enjoy looking at the lilies in our garden from the safety of our screened porch.

Just say no to lilies. Let this guy enjoy them instead… for your safety.

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Poison Prevention Week: Making Your House Safer

Did you hear that this is National Poison Prevention Week? It’s a week to raise awareness of poison prevention for the whole family, and we all know that our cats are an important part of the family. Every day of this week has a different awareness focus, and today is Home Safe Home day.

We live in our home with cats every day and don’t think about the trouble they can get into until a breakable vase is knocked on the floor, then we realize that the vase was in a dangerous place all the time. Things that may be poisonous to our cats in our home are like that, too. We live alongside them all the time without thinking about them until something unfortunate happens. Take a few minutes during this awareness week to look around your house at a cat’s eye view.

Has your cat ever gotten into the attic or basement? Many attics and basements have moth balls, rat bait, or ant poison in unprotected locations because you don’t expect a cat to be in there. Putting these items in locations that are accessible to moths, rats, or ants rather than cats is always a good idea, just in case a cat visits the area.

Does your cat know how to get into cabinets? What about drawers?

Take a look in the cabinet under your kitchen and bathroom sink. What do you store there? Cleaning products and detergents? If your upper cabinets are like ours, they probably have bottles of vitamins, human medicines, and veterinary medicines. If your cat is as adept at opening cabinets and drawers as Pierre, you might want to look into baby latches intended to keep children out of cabinets. They’re not expensive, and can keep curiuous cats out of the cabinets. We have posted previously about solutions for securing pantries and other storage areas that have bifold doors.

You may have houseplants in any room of the house. Some houseplants are toxic to cats, while others are fine. A good resource to check about the specific plants in your house is the Pet Poison Helpline list of poisons. This resource includes plants and many other poisonous items found throughout your home, so you can find out about their potential effects on your cat.

Does your cat have access to your garage? Walk out there and take a look at what you’re storing there. Are there slug baits for the garden? What about weed killers? If your washer and dryer are in the garage, the dish washing detergent and fabric softener sheets are toxic, too. (Though not related to poisons, don’t forget to be careful to always check the interior of the dryer before putting in a load in case a cat gets inside!) Automotive chemicals such as oil, gasoline, and antifreeze are also toxic. It only takes a teaspoon of antifreeze to kill a cat.

Take a few minutes to move poisonous items out of your cat’s reach today to make your house a safer place for your cat each and every day.

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National Chip Your Pet Month

Don’t Eat That: Onions

Just Say No to Lilies

Poison Prevention Week: Making Your House Safer

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