As you read this, the festive season and the New Year are just around the proverbial corner. Therefore today we will again take a pause from the ‘science’ associated with geriatric pet care. Instead we will advise on what not to do to pets during the festive and post-festive seasons.
Actually, there are many who see Christmas and the immediate post-Christmas period as a bacchanalian rite and a heathen splurge that have nothing to do with the birth of Christ; such persons feel that prayer and meditation should be the order of the day. Their pets consequently fall on lean times during this period. Let’s look at some of the no-noes during the festive season.
Overfeeding
As we had mentioned previously, many humans seem to have this fixation with overstuffing themselves during the pre- peri- and post- festive season. Consequently, they feel the pets must also gorge themselves full with all the junk food (or residues therefrom).
Well, that is wrong. Dogs and cats couldn’t care less if there is no boxing on Boxing Day and no garlic pork/beef on Christmas Day.
They would be just as happy if they received their usual bland fare.
As I have told readers of this column before, at a refresher course/further education series in which I participated a few years ago, the lecturers from the largest pet food manufacturers in the world who worked at the foremost companion animal nutrition research institute on the planet, advised us that over 50% of all ailments among pets stem from incorrect nutrition. Well, that figure must be 80% around the Christmas period. The problem is that the vet has to prise himself/herself from a favourite chair/recliner to look after a pet which has just developed (to the owner) a “life-threathening” malady, which is, in truth, just a reaction (vomiting?) to a piece of chocolate, or plain bellyache from over-engorgement, or some such incorrect bit of feeding.
Of course, since no veterinarian (well, with some few expectations) can tell the flustered client to go to hell on Christmas Eve Day, he/she has to deal with the product of the owner’s careless feeding of the pet(s). Of course, in all likelihood the stomach pain will soon subside, but the pet owners cannot be consoled (at least not over the phone); they must see the vet.
Scaring pets with explosives
I know that it won’t be a good Old Year’s/New Year’s celebration, if we don’t throw squibs at each other to see the scared reaction! Christmas (not elections) is the true silly season.
When I was young – in Jurassic times – we used a piece of carbon and an Ovaltine tin to produce a loud noise at Christmas. There were no squibs in those days. Or, if there were, we either had no money to buy them or, simply, we found more fun creating the bang with spat-upon carbon. And the camaraderie! Each one of us had to spit on the piece of carbon.
Well, whether it is a firecracker or a squib or any noise-making explosive, it hurts animals. Dogs and cats have sensitive ears. The noise from the explosions disorients and traumatizes them. They don’t know what to do. They run indoors and try to hide in secluded places where they think there is security (bathrooms, under beds, in cupboards, etc). They hurt themselves. They run away from home (you can see them wandering around our roads lost and with anxious looks). They are struck down by uncaring motorists. I recall that one year, a German Shepherd from Kitty was picked up by a good Samaritan in South Ruimveldt.
The tying of firecrackers to dogs’ tails is an unpardonable act of cruelty and an offence under the law. One can be charged and, if the GSPCA gets involved, the offender could be incarcerated. Terrorizing dogs and cats is not a joke. If a friend wants to commit such acts of barbarism, distance yourself from him or her. He/she must not be friend. Such a person might need psychiatric help.
Simply put, exposing pets to squibs, firecrackers and to any type of explosive is one of the greatest cruelties one can administer to an animal.
Bathing
Dogs should not be bathed often. Cats (who groom themselves constantly) hardly ever need baths. I’ll deal with this theme in more detail on another occasion. It seems that pet owners, having cleaned up their houses totally for Christmas, feel compelled to remain in the cleaning mood. The cleaning frenzy is on. ‘Rover,’ the dog and ‘Felix,’ the cat, get dunked in the big basin of water, or are shoved, kicking, screaming and biting, under the standpipe. Of course, getting the dog/cat dry might pose a problem – especially during the December rains. The animal might then be placed in a draught – and a ‘cold’ results. If you feel that something must be done to your animal’s coat during Christmas, just brush it.
Enjoy the festive season with your companion animals. Best wishes from all of us who make this column an enjoyable and informative read.
