Certain common holiday foods can cause serious problems for dogs or cats that get into those foods. Gary Crawford has more.

PARTICIPANTS: Gary Crawford and Dr. Susan Nelson, veterinarian and professor at Kansas State University.

Transcript

While you are hosting a holiday party or meal your dog or cat may be prowling around there saying Food yeah, but a lot of party foods can be dangerous to your pet and not just chocolate, Kansas State University veterinarian Dr.

Susan Nelson says you'd be surprised at the list of foods and food ingredients That can be toxic to dogs cats or both for example foods that contain the sugar-free sweetener Xylitol it causes low blood sugar and liver failure, and it doesn't take much to do irreparable harm And people don't think about it because it can be in baked goods.

It can be in our sugar-free candies and also be in some of our Medications things like that as well It's in many sugar-free chewing gums also and in fact she's had Cases where dogs have gone into the room where party goers have put their coats and purses and such Gotten into those coats and purses started eating the chewing gum and died from it and this Xylitol thing is mostly a problem for dogs also Especially for dogs the fatty parts of meats can be a problem all those fatty parts can cause what we call pancreatitis Which can become life-threatening for them as well.

And then some of our gravies and things like that are made with onion powder which is a lot more concentrated Than just plain onion and they can have garlic powder and things in them as well And so for both cats and dogs that can also be an issue As far as causing a type of anemia that they can get but the list is longer there are more foods that can cause problems For pets do you put out nuts like macadamias almonds walnuts pecans those can cause all kinds of gastro intestinal problems from just making the dog throw up to conditions that could really be dangerous and result in some very Expensive surgery and then raisins which are going to be in a lot of the holiday foods and grapes can be toxic to dogs And if you're baking things using raw bread dough that can cause serious problems for dogs If they ingest the raw bread dough as well quite a list there now you may think that dr Nelson's list of bad foods for dogs and cats goes a little far Maybe she's just a worry wart or an alarmist, but she says she has seen and treated these exact problems Oh, yeah, and I was out in private practice for 13 years as well.

So yeah, so Dr. Nelson's advice to party hosts do your best to keep your party foods out of the reach of your pets or keep the pets out Of reach of the foods and also if the pets are running around during the party or the meal ask your guests Please don't feed them It will just encourage begging behavior and you don't know what they might be feeding them and there again some of these can be more Problematic than others depending what pieces are slipping them or if the pets rule the house Maybe let the pets eat their food have the guests big for food from the pets How about that?

That would be another way to do it.

Not a good way though, right doggie, right?

Gary Crawford for the US Department of Agriculture, Washington