Festive Foods That Send Pets to the Vet

December is the busiest month for South African emergency vets and most of it is food. Here is the list, roughly in order of how often it causes trouble.

The big offenders

• Cooked bones. Braai chops, chicken, lamb. Splinter, obstruct, perforate. The number one December emergency.
• Rich fatty food. Trimmings, skin, gravy, boerewors. Causes pancreatitis, which is painful, expensive and sometimes fatal. Small breeds and overweight dogs are most at risk. Signs are repeated vomiting, a hunched posture, refusing food and abdominal pain.
• Onion, garlic and leeks. In stuffing, gravy, potato bake, chakalaka and most marinades. They damage red blood cells, and the effect is cumulative over days.
• Grapes and raisins. In fruit cake, mince pies, malva pudding sauces and cheese boards. Cause kidney failure in dogs at unpredictable and sometimes small doses. Treat any ingestion as urgent.
• Chocolate. Advent calendars and gift boxes left under a tree at nose height.
• Xylitol. Sugar-free sweets, gum, some peanut butters and baked goods. Extremely dangerous, small amounts matter.
• Alcohol. Half-finished glasses left at table level. Dogs are far more sensitive than people.
• Macadamias. Common in South African festive baking and toxic to dogs.

The non-food hazards

Tinsel and ribbon are the classic cat emergency — linear foreign bodies that saw through the intestine and require surgery. Christmas tree water can contain preservatives. Lilies are lethal to cats, and every part of the plant matters including pollen; do not have them in a house with a cat. Fairy light cables get chewed.

Running a safe table

Brief guests once, before the meal, because most dangerous food reaches pets through a well-meaning relative. Put the bin outside with a lid on before you start cooking. Give the dog its own thing to work on — a frozen stuffed toy in another room during the meal beats a dog under the table.

Know who is open

Find out now which emergency vet is open over the holidays and how long the drive takes. Save the number offline. In December the answer to "we will phone the vet in the morning" is often that the practice is closed until the fourth.