While the festive season includes lots of leg ham for humans, this should not be the case for your dog as well! Although it may be tempting to give your pooch leftover leg ham, roast turkey or chicken, it is detrimental to their health!

 The ABC reports that there are lots of Veterinary nurses across Australia that find an increasing amount of dogs in treatment for serious illness following the Christmas period, after being feed leg ham. 

Ham and other salty meats and foods are very dangerous to pets. In addition to being high in fat, they are also very salty which can cause serious stomach ache or pancreatitis.

Also, large breeds of dogs that eat salty food may drink too much water and develop a life-threatening condition called “bloat.” This is where the stomach fills up with gas and within several hours may twist, causing the pet to die. Please avoid giving ham and salty foods to your pets.  

2018 case study – Dr Anne Fawcett of Sydney Animal Hospital Inner West said a number of sickly dogs had already been presented to the practice. “We’ve seen plenty of dogs following Christmas with vomiting and diarrhoea and most of those cases have involved dogs that have eaten either the Christmas ham, lamb or turkey and we have seen some incidences as a result of prawns as well,” Dr Fawcett said. “They’ve presented with one of two symptoms; either full-on gastro or pancreatitis which can be very painful, make dogs quite sick and is also life threatening.” 

Dr Fawcett said pancreatitis resulted in the sudden inflammation of a dog’s pancreas and “essentially auto digesting” as it attempts to combat the sudden influx of fat and salt-rich foods. There are plenty of excellent healthy dog treats out there (check out our range of treats online!) but if you do want to give your dog a bone get a raw one from our online menu, avoid leg bones and make sure it’s too big for the dog to get it in his or her mouth. To order your dog a treat for this Christmas, while you’re all enjoying an abundance of food, check out our range of meat bone alternatives to your Christmas ham.