Thanksgiving is approaching, and with it the temptation to include family pets in the festivities.

Pet owners should not give in to the understandable urge to include your dog or cat in the bounty of Thanksgiving dinner. Those rich foods that leave you wishing for a nap can send your pet to the veterinary hospital with a possibly life-threatening illness.

Indeed, shopping malls aren't the only places where the day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday. In veterinary offices everywhere, the Friday after Thanksgiving brings a flood of anxious owners cradling dogs and cats with bellyaches and diarrhea. Fatty foods are the chief culprits. That plate of turkey skin, gravy and butter-laden mashed potatoes you want to give your dog or cat could easily trigger a bout of painful gastroenteritiswith its attendant vomiting and diarrhea, or worse, a potentially fatal case of pancreatitis in your dog.

The pancreas normally releases digestive enzymes into the stomach and intestines to aid digestion. But when overwhelmed with fatty food, the pancreas may begin to release its enzymes directly into the abdominal cavity. This is a severe condition that will require extensive veterinary medical treatment, and can be fatal. So don't leave leftovers unattended on the kitchen counter, and keep the kitchen trash can secure. All those delicious smells can lead even a well-trained dog to forget his manners.

Other potential hazards to safeguard against include turkey bones, which can splinter and cause a puncture or blockage in your dog's intestines. And be sure to safely discard the string used to tie up a turkey or ham while cooking. This can present an irresistible attraction for your dog or cat, but once swallowed, can become a grave hazard as it twists up the digestive tract.

In recent years the ASPCA Poison Control Center has implicated the ingestion of raisins or grapes in hundreds of cases of serious acute kidney failure in dogs. So be sure your guests don't try to slip your dog a treat from the fruit bowl. And of course, candy is never a good idea, but dark chocolate and baker's chocolate particularly contain compounds that can dangerously over-stimulate your dog's nervous system.

Rather than share potentially dangerous foods with your pet at Thanksgiving, try giving him or her a small additional serving of their regular diet. It will still be a treat, but a happy one, and you and your pet can spend Black Friday at the shopping mall instead of the veterinary clinic.
Dr. Lawrence Wolf
President
New Jersey Veterinary
Medical Association
Hillsborough