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OMG! Look what the cat did to the Christmas Tree! (And other holiday hazards)

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  I saw this post on Facebook the other day and had to laugh. It's a picture of a gorgeously decorated Christmas tree behind a floor to ceiling chicken wire cage. Why is this so funny to me? Because I have thought about doing this myself to our tree. In our house, the Christmas Tree goes up the day after Thanksgiving and the cats immediately start their plan to undecorate the tree. Currently then entire bottom half of our tree is bare-- no ornaments, no lights, nothing!  The holidays can pose some significant challenges for pet owners and some very real dangers for our pets. Let's start with the tree itself.  Regardless if you put up an artifical tree or a live tree, you will need the strongest, heaviest base to prevent the tree from falling over. Forget those cute little metal pans with the four struts and the big screws that grandpa used to use. You need a heavy base to hold your tree so that your cat will not knock it over. When I was in vet school, I came home one day and c
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November 29, 2022: "How much should I feed my dog?"

  This is a question I often have clients ask me in the exam room, particularly when they have a new puppy or a dog they have just adopted from a local rescue group. There are 2 places we can find information on how much to feed your dog or cat. The first place to start is on the back of the bag. You should find a table with a list of different weights in the first column and recommended feeding amounts in the second column. If you know how much your pet weighs, look across from the weight to find the amount to feed. "But what if my dog's weight is not on the table?" In some cases, we might need to approximate how much to feed based on the other weights listed on the table. For example, my dog Karma weighs 60 pounds. But the table does not have her weight listed. It only tells me how much to feed a 40 pound dog or an 80 pound dog. If the table says to feed a 40 pound dog 2.5 cups of food per day and an 80 pound dog 4 cups per day, then I should probably feed Karma around
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