For a lot of us, Christmas is a time for family gatherings and serving lots of food. We must also keep our pet’s health in mind during the holidays as well.

Veterinarian Dr. Mark Peters with Jefferson Veterinary Clinic, says keep human food out of the reach of pets, especially candy and sweets containing Xylitol. Baker’s chocolate can be toxic to animals, while milk chocolate will cause an upset stomach. Side effects animals can have if eating human food are vomiting, diarrhea and gastric or intestinal irritation. Additionally, poultry bones are light and can cause splitters in the throat or stomach of the pet.

Dr. Peters also cautions against using holiday decorations like mistletoe and holly.

“Mistletoe actually can cause some heart arrhythmias, if enough is taken, and the same with holly. If we decorate with that, low doses will stimulate the animal and high doses will depress the animal, clear to comas. So obviously, it kind of dose-dependent. But we want to avoid all those things if we have pets, no doubt about it.”

He recommends keeping all holiday decorations out of the reach of pets as well.