Easter is a time of year when I get to eat one of my favorite seasonal foods - Peeps. I always stick with the original yellow Peeps - they taste best. I always buy them in the single packs because I prefer them soft and fresh. I know that I have fellow Peep lovers out that prefer them dried out with a little give but for me there's nothing like a fresh yellow Peep right out of the package on a spring day.
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Yummy peeps
picture from www.citykelly.com
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And although Peeps may not have much to do with veterinary medicine - Easter time certainly does and when I was at the grocery store purchasing some "on sale" end of season Peeps I once again witnessed the horror of the wall of Easter lilies. My heart sinks whenever I see those lovely fragrant flowers and every year I break my vow to commit Guerilla warfare in the supermarkets and clandestinely place signs on the festive plants that say CAT POISON! These flowers are so dangerous to cats. They can cause irreversible kidney failure and death in cats. The sad thing is many people aren't aware of this and many buy these as gifts for friends or to liven up their house for the holiday and what do cats love to do but chew on new plants and flowers brought into the house. Within an hour after ingesting the plant the cat will begin to vomit. Within 12 hours they will become depressed and within 48-96 hours they show signs of kidney failure such as urinating more, depression, gastrointestinal upset and dehydration. If untreated within 18 hours most cats do not survive! So please help me spread the word - if you have a cat, know someone who has a cat, or know someone who knows someone who has a cat - please let them know the dangers of this beautiful and festive plant.
And don't forget that plastic grass or anything stringy can be a danger to cats too - for some reason there are cats out there that love to eat stringy objects! I knew one cat that loved to eat stringy objects and had 4 surgeries for obstruction. For his last one he was turned over to the hospital I was working at and we took care of him. One of the doctors adopted him and one day they saw him running down the hall with a balloon chasing him! He had swallowed 1/2 of the balloon string! Luckily they were able to gently remove about 2 foot of ribbon and free the cat from the balloon monster! Plastic grass can cause obstruction in the intestines if ingested which could mean surgery to remove the offending object and hospitalization for the recovery.
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Easter lillies - help spread the word!
photo by Andrew Dunn from the Wikipedia entry
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Not to leave dogs out of this informative but depressing holiday talk, they have some dangers too. The most serious are holiday chocolates, candy and tablefood sharing. Dogs have a much better ability to find hidden treats than children do so please keep your dog away from the Easter egg hunt area. You should take an inventory at the end of the hunt to make sure everything was collected and maybe even make a map ahead of time so you can find all of the goodies in the end. I did have a case of chocolate toxicity in a small dog 3 days after Easter. The family came home and found pieces of plastic Easter eggs and vomited up chocolate. The dog did fine but he was hospitalized for 2 days. Chocolate really is toxic to dogs but there are many types of chocolate and many sizes of dogs so not every chocolate ingestion is treated equally. A 90 pound Lab that eats one M&M is going to be fine - probably won't even show any vomiting or diarrhea side effects. A 7 pound Chihuahua that eats 1/2 a pound of baker's chocolate is in a whole lot of trouble. For detailed information on how chocolate toxicity works in dogs take a look at the Purdue Veterinary School Wellness Center Website.
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Chocolate Easter eggs - remember where you hide them!
photo from www.bbc.co.uk
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Other dangers for dogs at Easter time include ingestion of candy and tablefood that they are not used to eating - in some dogs this can lead to a painful and potentially fatal condition called Pancreatitis. Pancreatitis symptoms include severe vomiting and diarrhea (often bloody) and severe abdominal pain, depression and dehydration. Dogs with pancreatitis must be hospitalized for days with intensive care and pain medication. The last danger is foreign body ingestion - those darn plastic eggs with the goodies inside can lead to obstruction in the intestines if they are eaten. If obstructions occurs the symptoms are vomiting and usually with a good appetite in the beginning which progresses to loss of appetite, dehydration and depression with continued vomiting. With all of these similar symptoms it can be tough to figure out what exactly we're dealing with but diagnostics and your careful history can be very helpful in ruling out obstruction from pancreatitis and other conditions that cause similar symptoms.
I hope this information has been helpful. It is not meant to scare you and ruin your holiday. It is meant to give you information to help keep your pets (and other pets) safe. Does anyone have any stories to share? Any questions? Please post comments!
Happy Easter everyone! Construction updates are coming soon!