Christmas essentials can be life-threatening for your dog

You can find it almost everywhere, sometimes even when the owner is encouraging the dog to play with it. But it can be a big problem!

We most often associate the nouns of smells, tastes and lights with the adjective festive. The smell of pine, the taste of poppy seed bejgli and the tree glistening with a garland of lights all undoubtedly add to the Christmas atmosphere. They also leave an imprint as a memory. But these three things are exactly the kind of things you should keep away from your dog. The oil in the pine is mildly toxic, while the bejgli can quickly upset a dog’s stomach. But there’s an even bigger problem with the fluorescent light: the risk of electric shock. Curious animals can suffer serious, even life-threatening injuries.

Powered by electricity or batteries

Light bulbs are usually powered by either electricity or batteries. The latter is the less risky: the more you the battery is the one that, if chewed, can cause a lot of troublebut not the bulb itself (of course, it’s no good if your pet swallows plastic either!) can lead to death in a matter of seconds.  So if your dog starts chewing on a fluorescent light bulb plugged into a socket, you may not get there in time! Destruction-prone and puppies are the most at risk – after all, they’re tiny, especially if they are teething, they use their mouths to examine everything.

Don’t wrap your dog!

As we mentioned in the introduction, it is often the owner who gets the dog interested in the lights.

We have seen more than one picture of a string of lights wrapped around the dog’s body or neck as a festive decoration. Very risky!

What to do in case of electric shock?

It’s best if your pet doesn’t have access to anything electrical. So put any electric Christmas decorations out of his reach. But if, at some unforeseen moment, you do get a shock, here’s what you should do:

1.) If it hasn’t tripped on its own, the most important thing is to turn off the fuse! Otherwise, the injured person’s condition will continue to deteriorate and you could be electrocuted too. If you do not know where the main switch is, use rubber gloves to pull the plug out of the socket.

2) If the animal has had a seizure, you should wait for it to pass. You can speed this up by taking the dog to a dark, quiet place and not talking to it. If you cannot move him, cover his eyes, but make sure he can breathe!

3) Start by cooling the burned area under cold water or with ice gel wrapped in a cloth. You can cool the mouth with ice cubes.

You need to know the technique!

Unfortunately, electrocution can also cause a dog’s heart to stop. In this case, you should start CPR immediately!

You can learn the correct technique from this video: