We all want to include our best friends in the joyous moments in our life, especially around the holidays. This includes Holiday meals like Christmas dinner. Everyone is around the table enjoying their Christmas dinner, why should your best friend?
Well, the 1st reason would like to avoid this is because it can also cause bad behavior in our friends that we do not want such as begging. This can be something really difficult to train out of our pets once they start, so best not to even let them start.
The 2nd reason you would want to avoid this is it can cause something called pancreatitis. What is that? It is inflammation of your pet’s pancreas, which is something you never want to make angry.
Next question that gets followed by this is why would giving them something special make their pancreas angry? Put simply, this is a food they do not get often so that alone upsets the body as they are not used to that. Add in the fact that they get fatty foods that are not necessarily nutritious for that pet and well you get an angry pancreas.
Ok, we have made the pancreas angry, can’t you just fix that? Well, yes, we can always try to help but this becomes expensive very very quickly! It also can become reoccurring if happened once before. This means you spend all kinds of money; we hopefully fix the problem but it may occur again and you would have to pay a lot of money all over again! The best thing to do is to prevent it all together.
There are also other factors that put your best friends at a higher risk of getting pancreatitis which would come into play with this too. If your friend is obese, they are more likely to get it so giving fatty foods, they are not used to is just asking for trouble. Miniature Schnauzers are also predisposed to having pancreatitis. This means they may get this even if you did not feed them fatty foods, but if you do then they have a higher risk of developing it so why risk it?
Save a trip to the emergency vet, give your best friend instead something special they can eat like a doggie cupcake.
If you read this and say “wait a minute, I already did this and had no idea.” These are the signs you would want to look for in your friend. With dogs you will see lethargy, inappetence, vomiting, diarrhea, painful abdomen, or a fever. It could also be a combination of these. In cats it is more difficult but you will still notice lethargy and inappetence. If you notice these signs and thinking back think that maybe human food is the cause. Go to your nearest veterinary clinic and let them know.
Hope you have a lovely and safe holiday!
Written by: Ashley G, VT
Resources:
Veterinary Partner: https://veterinarypartner.vin.com/default.aspx?pid=19239&id=4951457
https://veterinarypartner.vin.com/default.aspx?pid=19239&id=4952412