Preventive Care: Safeguard your Yard

Help prevent unexpected summertime accidents. Below are some of the common yard related Pet emergencies our doctors see:

1. Pesticides — Slug bait and rodent and ant poisons are particularly dangerous, because the taste entices Pets to consume them. Small quantities can be very dangerous to your Pet.

Prevention tips:
 

• Ask your local nursery for Pet-friendly gardening products and follow application instructions carefully.
• Tightly seal containers and store them in a secure place.

2. Poisonous Mushrooms — There are a variety of poisonous plants and flowers that are dangerous to curious Pets. However, mushrooms are the most commonly ingested organic material in the yard during the summer.

Prevention tips:

• Remove mushrooms you find growing in the yard.
• Mushrooms are a fungus and they can grow quickly, even overnight, so check your yard frequently.

3. Poisonous Snake Bites — Curious Pets and snakes don’t mix well. In some areas of the country, a meeting of the two species can result in a venomous bite to your Pet.

Prevention tips:

• Find out what poisonous snakes, if any, are in your area and learn to identify them.
• Make the yard unattractive to snakes by getting rid of board piles, debris or trash piles, high grass and weedy areas.