HEALTHY CHRISTMAS
This is our last article this year, and this time we wouldn’t like to write about diseases, diagnostics or vaccines. We would just like to wish a merry Christmas to every pet and owner; we would also like to thank our clients and readers for their confidence, and to remind everybody Christmas is a perfect moment for cuddling and protecting our pets. Just a minute! To protect them against what? Against the excess of food, of course. At this time of year, it’s very common to eat different (and unusual) kinds of food, specially sweets, and it’s also very common to see how dogs, cats, hamsters, and even parrots get fatter and fatter because they are allowed to taste chocolate bonbons and nougats. As a matter of fact, I remember a cat (the cat I owned when I was a child), that, after “sharing” a Christmas banquet at home had an appointment for a routine health check including a blood test. Her blood was so full of fat (lipemic plasma) that the blood sampling had to be delayed. Fortunately, it was just indigestion.
The most dangerous situation is foreign body ingestion. Animals may swallow almost everything, no matter if it is related to food or not. Sometimes they may swallow toys, such as rubber balls, bottle caps, bracelets, and even a centerpiece! This is probably the most original foreign body we have ever removed from the stomach of a dog.
Normally, indigestions are not very worrying and in most cases going searching for emergency Vets for this reason at Christmas is not necessary (remember it’s very difficult and expensive to find a vet on duty on Christmas day), so normally we can leave it for the next day if we just take the precaution of removing the food bowl. But if we consider the animal may have swallowed a foreign body, it cannot be left for later: we must find an emergency Vet immediately.
Finally, let me send a big hug to all those pets and people we will never see again because they passed away this year. Specially, a big kiss to aunt Nieves. I miss you.
Liliana Aldeguer Cerdán col 793
English translation by Sergio Reina Esteban col 747
Clinica Veterinaria
Gran Alacant Exotics
Tel: 966 698 569
