Having a cookout or BBQ? Do you have a pet that seizes the opportunity to beg for delicious grilled treats or chips and dip? Perhaps the party has progressed to sitting around a fire pit, and you’ve left all the food on the kitchen counters inside. Here’s what you need to know about popular foods offered at BBQs and how they can be potentially harmful to your pet.

Chips and Snack foods

We all know us humans should limit our intake of chips and crunchy premade snacks, but so should our furry friends. Snack foods like chips, pretzels and more have high sodium and can cause a dog to have excessive thirst, which in turn leads to excessive urination. If a dog has too many snack foods with high sodium it can lead to sodium ion poisoning, the side effects of which include vomiting, diarrhea, fevers and even death. So be sure to watch the chip bowl.

Left over bones

Bones from leftover grilled items may seem harmless, you’ve given your dog a bone from the pet store before right? Wrong. Bones from ribs, steaks or chicken wings can be extremely dangerous to dogs. Bones splinter easily and can cause internal harm to your pet’s intestines in the form of puncture wounds to the digestive tract. If your pet swallows a bone it can become lodged in their intestines, and form a blockage, which may require surgery.

Hot dogs

While we know that hot dogs aren’t good for people, they are even worse for our pups. Hot dogs contain lots of salt and preservatives, in levels that our pets just aren’t used to. If your dog has hot dogs they may experience diarrhea and indigestion. The size of hot dogs may also present a choking hazard if your dog fails to chew it up appropriately.

Sweet treats

You may think fruit is harmless to a pet, but you’d be wrong again. Fruits are high in sugar, another something that dogs don’t often get a lot of. Eating lots of fruit can lead to blood glucose issues. Grapes and raisins are particularly toxic to dogs. They can cause kidney issues or even death when consumed.

Desserts are also very important to avoid. Chocolate and xylitol can be fatal, almost immediately in dogs.

Beer and alcohol

Consider where beer and alcohol is kept at any social gather you have. Even a small amount of beer or liquor can be fatal to a dog. So make sure that once the festivities pick up that your pet doesn’t have access to abandoned glasses full of drink.

Take away

Be sure to tell your friends and family not to feed your animal anything that isn’t normally allowed. They may want to give them a treat, but not realize that they’re doing harm.