Winterize your pets? Isn’t it enough that they have fur (and maybe a little extra fat this time of year)?

Though nature does equip animals with winter survival gear, there are also some things we can do to make the season a better one for our pets and the other animals around us.

These tips comes from Sheri Bolda, a technician at Ellsworth Veterinary Clinic, on Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota:

• When your pet comes indoors, check its paws for snow, ice, salt, or de-icing chemicals they may have picked up. These can get stuck in the pads, risking frostbite – or sickness, if the animal licks chemicals off its paws.
• If you think your pet does have frostbite, warm it up with a blanket.
• Before driving away, bang on the hood of your car and check underneath. Cats and wild animals sometimes crawl into these spaces to shelter at night.
• Wipe up spilled antifreeze, which tastes sweet but is harmful. If you use the kind with propylene glycol, however, it won’t harm animals that accidentally swallow a small amount.
• Make sure outdoor water bowls don’t freeze over – you can get heated bowls to prevent this.
• Speaking of water, don’t let your pet drink from the Christmas tree stand. That water may contain fertilizer or bacteria.
• Holiday decorations made of real plants – mistletoe, poinsettia, and holly – are dangerous for pets to eat. (Cats especially seem to want a few greens sometimes. Try getting yours some live cat grass.)
• Less well-known: Long, thin objects, like ribbons, can get into an animal’s digestive tract and cause serious problems.
• And, of course, don’t feed the pets table scraps. Get them some pet treats, and keep the turkey, stuffing, and pie for yourselves.

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