It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Well maybe not after you get your credit card bills and heating bills but I digress. The nights are long which means it's a good time to curl up with a good book and a hot cocoa. Or to binge watch that show everyone has been talking about. It is also cold and can mean some not so nice weather. After a snowstorm/ice storm people will go out to clear their sidewalks, walkways and driveway then put down some rock salt or ice melt. What is rock salt or ice melt made of? Ice-melting chemicals commonly contain sodium chloride or rock salt, calcium chloride, potassium chloride, magnesium chloride, and/or urea, also known as carbonyl diamide. This is great to get rid of icy walkways but not so good for pets or people. At the very least if it gets on your skin or your pet’s paws it will cause irritation and dryness. People can just wash off the ice melt and use some lotion. For pets, they can’t say that they got some ice melt on their paws and can you wash it off. What they could do is lick their paws until they are raw then their paws could get infected. While they are licking their paws they will swallow some ice melt which can be irritating and cause stomach issues. It can be scary when you don’t know what has made your pet ill. It causes stress for everyone until you get to the bottom of the aliment. The best way to remedy this is, wipe your pet’s paws every time they come into the house. Take a nice damp cloth and wipe your pet’s paws between pads and toes. Don’t forget to give them a treat for being so good or not so good, each time may get easier with treats. Even if you don’t see any ice melt, wipe them anyway, it gets your pet into a routine and there are plenty of other chemicals you don’t want on your pet’s feet. Side note, if you have a dog walker please leave out a cloth or whatever you use so that they can keep up the routine. Leaving out helps dog walkers to make sure they use what you want them to use.
