One of the things we associate with this holiday season is the appearance of the colorful poinsettia plant. A commonly held belief that gets a lot of play around the holiday season is that the poinsettia is poisonous to animals. As it turns out, this is not true at all. It’s not clear how this misconception came about or what has kept the myth alive.

Even the esteemed Mayo Clinic has conducted studies showing that these red-leafed plants pose no fatal or public health threat. There is in fact no substantial evidence that points to poinsettias being dangerous to pets (or humans for that matter).

There are plenty of other substances around this holiday season that cause more harm to dogs and cats (chocolate for instance). With all the distractions that the holidays bring, try to keep your pets from ingesting things that aren’t part of their regular diet such as table scraps.

Christmas weekend and New Years Eve weekend we will be open during our regular hours. If your pets needs medical attention and our clinic is closed you may call the PET EMERGENCY TREATMENT SERVICE  in Berkeley at 510-548-6684.