As the festive season is truly upon us it would be remiss of me not to at least mention good old chocolate poisoning and raisin toxicity. We had a classic last week – one of our client's daughters had very kindly got mum a Christmas present and very sensibly hidden it until the big day. Sadly she hid it in her bedroom and did not shut the door properly, also sadly it was Green and Blacks high coco solid dark chocolate (what a kind daughter!) and to top it all off this client has four dogs. Next thing we know is that we are getting a call from a very worried owner as the chocolate has been eaten by one of the dogs.

It is not uncommon to have a situation where something toxic is eaten by one of a group of dogs, the trouble is that we have to make all the dogs sick as we cannot tell who the culprit is. And so it was in this case, we had three innocent dogs that just brought up their supper and one naughty young collie who brought up a vast amount of Green and Blacks high quality chocolate. So please remember to not just hide presents from human family members – you need to hide them from canine family members that can sniff them out.

Raisin and grape toxicity is something that is becoming increasingly well known about (in fact I think I heard it mentioned in the Archers last week!) but it is always worth being reminded that mince pies, Christmas pudding and Christmas cake are a definite no go for our pets.