For Peep's Sake: Easter Safety Tips for your Pets!

When my kids were little, Easter was one of their favorite holidays, right after Christmas and Halloween.  They loved hunting for eggs in the yard, and the older they got, the more competitive they got in the process of finding those candy-filled eggs! Our dogs always loved being part of the process too.  They helped the Easter Bunny hide all of those eggs, and then ran around helping the kids find them as well.  It was pretty amusing to watch and definitely on my list of favorite memories.  We were lucky, however, that our dogs never tried to eat any of those plastic or hardboiled eggs themselves; they saved those for the kids.  It probably helped that the dogs had their own Easter baskets, but I digress.  My point in telling you all of this is to remind you of a few Easter hazards for pets that you may not even be aware of.  So, for safety sake, here is my short list of things to watch out for:

1. Chocolate:  Yes, I know, there is a lot of chocolate available on other holidays as well, but not in the form of chocolate bunnies, ducks, and chicks.  Those bigger-sized, fun-shaped chocolates found in Easter baskets are deadly.  Chocolate contains theobromine and caffeine, two methylxanthines. Both are in higher concentrations in dark chocolate, for example, but a big, milk chocolate bunny is still a gastrointestinal risk for your dog.

2.  Easter Grass:  If you think tinsel is attractive to dogs and cats, you can't imagine how exciting it is for them to spot loads of colored tinsel (aka Easter basket grass) readily available in those cute Easter baskets sitting out for the kids.  Easter grass can cause bowel obstructions, stomach irritation, and is a choking hazard. If you are doing an Easter basket for your pets as well, stick to shredded paper or hay for their "grass."

3. Plastic Eggs & Small Toys: Those cute, colored plastic eggs whether filled with candy or small toys, are a choking hazard for your pets.  Again, if swallowed, they can cause bowel obstructions and stomach irritation as well.

4. Eggs:  While hard-boiled eggs can be a healthy treat for your pet, the dye used to color the eggs may not be.  Make sure that the dye you use is non-toxic, as a bit of dye always permeates the egg shell leaving the egg inside with a slight tint.  Again, watch how many eggs your pet consumes.  While one egg is fine, if they find and consume more eggs than your kids/grandkids do, you've got a potential problem!

5.  Jellybeans:  While jellybeans in an of themselves might seem low risk, they can be deadly if the brand chosen contains xylitol as the sweetener.  Xylitol poisoning leads to liver failure and death.

6.  Easter Ham & Lamb:  While a bite of ham or lamb may be low risk, these higher fat foods, along with the higher fat side dishes we often serve on this holiday as well, are a risk for pancreatitis, abdominal pain, bloat, vomiting, etc.

7.  Easter Lilies: Several varieties of lilies are toxic to cats and many are toxic to dogs as well, leading to kidney failure and death if any part of the plant is ingested. Lilies are messy plants, dropping petals and pollen in their water and on the surfaces where displayed.  Your pets may ingest those fallen leaves or petals, or walk through the pollen and then lick their feet.  The risk is so high, I recommend not bringing lilies into homes with pets at all.

8.  Marshmallow Peeps: while these cute little holiday traditions make it into many an Easter basket, they are loaded with sugar in several forms making them a gastrointestinal risk for pets who consume these colorful little treats in excess. 

Keeping your dogs on leash during the Easter egg hunt in your yard, placing Easter baskets up out of their reach, crating or confining those that surf counters are all good ways to protect your dogs on Easter Sunday.  Encourage well-meaning friends and family to bring other bright, cheerful flowers and plants and stay away from lilies and daffodils.  Have them bring tulips instead since the riskiest part of the tulip is the bulb making those beautiful, fresh cut tulips very low risk.

I realize Easter isn't until April 4th this year, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared, particularly for those of you with new puppies/dogs acquired during the pandemic lockdown, who've not had as many opportunities to work on leave it and drop it when it comes to holiday treats.

Hopefully, you won't need it, but if you do, here is the phone number for the pet poison hotline, (855) 764-7661.

As always, if you have questions about your pet's behavior, you know where to find me.