Emancipet gives tips to keep your pets safe this Halloween

Halloween is just around the corner and we're getting ready for all the tricks and treats, but we also need to think about our four-legged family members. Joining us this morning is Emancipet's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Virginia Moulet, to give us some tips. Thank you so much for coming back. Thank you for having me. Okay, so yes, I feel like the obvious one is don't let dogs eat chocolate, but there's other things. Yeah, so chocolate is always the first thing that people think about around Halloween and we definitely don't want to let our dogs eat it. We also just don't want to let them get into the candy in general. All that sugar isn't good for them, just like it's not good for us, not great for their stomach. And some sugar-free candy contains xylitol, which is toxic to dogs and cats, so keep it away from them. Okay, so that being said, we can protect them from the candy. They can also dress up and be super cute, but what are some other things that we should keep an eye out for? Yeah, so actually about the costumes, we love a good costume. Sometimes pets come into our clinics with costumes, which we love. But you do want to make sure that it's appropriate for your pet, that it's not too tight, that But they're comfortable wearing it. I recommend if you have a costume for your pet for Halloween, start wearing it now for a little bit. See how they tolerate it. Get them comfortable. Yeah. Make sure they're not going to eat it. Make sure they're comfortable and happy in it and it doesn't stress them out. Yes. And trick-or-treaters, they're going to be ringing that doorbell a lot. Yep. And that can be pretty stressful for our pets. It depends a little bit on the pet, but one thing to worry about is you definitely don't want to let them get out when the trick-or-treaters are coming in. And if your pet is a little more on the nervous side and maybe anxious about it, you definitely want to make sure you have a quiet room, maybe a bedroom or wherever your dog's bed is, maybe even a white noise machine. Give them somewhere nice, chew toys, something nice for them to have their own little Halloween party by themselves. And you could also use like a baby gate by the front door so that they don't zoom right out. I've got a few of those things around my house because I've got little ones and they, yeah. Okay, and the decorations, some of them, they're lovely, they look amazing, but they're not amazing for them. Yeah, so again, just making sure that wherever you put your decorations, your pet can't reach them, especially if they like to chew or ingest inappropriate items. Make sure, especially if those decorations have actual like candy or are made of natural ingredients that might seem even more tasty. We want to make sure that's kept away. Yes, especially like the fake spider web. Yeah, yeah, that stuff can get all clogged up if they try to eat it and we don't want to have an emergency surgery. That's not the Halloween scare we're looking for. No, no, no. we're preventing these types of scares yes so if people do unfortunately run into this you know maybe not of halloween maybe leading up to it what should they do um so if your pet eats something you should definitely uh bring them to an emergency clinic get some x-rays make sure that it's not blocked some some pets will be able to pass whatever they ate but you never want to like take that chance you always want to get them checked out first okay so yeah if you're panicking just take go to the emergency room yes and we have plenty in the austin area there are lots of emergency clinics yes anything else that we should keep an eye out for our pets during home something we always recommend is just you know make sure your microchip is up to date if your pet has one you can come into pretty much any vet clinic to get that scanned or fire stations or shelters on this way if your pet does sneak out the door you also want to make sure that even if they're wearing their costume they have an ID tag with their name on it just things to make sure that if the worst happens you're prepared for it I'm only laughing because I'm picturing my dog one of my dogs Ella she's dressed up as Cinderella last year not by choice obviously my choice and she had a fake wig and I can just see her like running right now with her little wig on um yeah anyway we love a good costume but yes make sure they're safe wearing their tags microchipped and everything like that well thank you so much for joining me this morning anything else before I let you go um I think that's it I'm just I'm from Emancipet and if if people need vaccines or microchips or any of that we offer that in our clinics www.emancipet.org to see what our services are y'all are the best i love you for real all right