KHTS Radio Santa Clarita Radio – Santa Clarita News
With the holiday season comes decorations, lights and carefully wrapped presents, but these festive items can easily become life-threatening for pets, according to a Santa Clarita veterinarian.
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To help local residents protect their pets this holiday season, Dr. Jaimie Ronchetto of Cinema Veterinary Centre is offering holiday safety tips to SCV pet owners.
Jaimie Ronchetto, DVM
“It can be very dangerous,” Ronchetto said of traditional holiday decor. “Kitties especially will go for ribbon, they’ll go for tinsel. And in playing with them, a lot of times they’ll end up ingesting them.”
If ingested, one end of the string or tinsel can get stuck in the pet’s system while the other end continues to be pushed through the body.
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“It can actually start to cut their intestines if it gets going long enough, so it can be really dangerous,” Ronchetto explained. “Then they would need surgery to remove it.”
While this is mostly a concern for cats, Ronchetto noted, “Dogs can certainly get into their fair share of trouble too.”
Dogs are more likely to attempt to eat decorations or ornaments that look like food, or play with something they may end up chewing on or ingesting.
Puppies especially tend to be drawn to electrical wires like holiday lights or extension cords, which has the potential to both electrocute the pet or spark a house fire if they try to chew through it.
By keeping these potentially hazardous holiday decorations out of the reach of pets, or even blocked by a pet gate, pet owners can help keep their pets safe this holiday season.
For a complete list of holiday pet safety tips from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, click here.
Ed. Note: This article is a KHTS Feature story based on a recent radio interview with Cinema Veterinary Centre.Dr. Jaimie Ronchetto, DVM, is a Santa Clarita veterinarian who opened her own veterinary hospital in Valencia after spending several years in private practice as an associate veterinarian at other SCV hospitals. Ronchetto and the staff at Cinema Veterinary Centre strive to give every dog, cat and pocket pet outstanding quality care in the areas of medicine and surgery. A Hart High School graduate, Ronchetto earned her BS degree from UC Davis and graduated with Honors from Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine.
23460 Cinema Drive
Valencia, CA 91355
(661) 253-9300
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