Household Items that Dog Parents Shouldn’t Worry About

As pet parents, we’re constantly hearing about surprising household poisons and protecting our dogs from one thing or another. While this is helpful to keep our dogs safe, it can be overwhelming! That’s why we’re finally here to bring you some good news: read on to learn about household items that are less dangerous than many pet parents think.

Birth Control Pills

Birth control pills, while effective for humans, have little to no effect on dogs. The pills themselves have a very low concentration of hormones, so even ingesting many pills would likely only lead to a mild upset stomach. If enough pills are ingested by your dog, their bone marrow may change, but it would take hundreds of pills in a medium-sized dog for this to occur. You should be more concerned if your dog ingests the plastic packaging surrounding the pills, as this can lead to choking and stomach issues.

Glow Jewelry

Those glow-in-the-dark bracelets and necklaces that look and feel extremely toxic aren’t as bad as you may expect. Dogs may drool, gag, retch, and even vomit if they bite into glow jewelry, but their reaction only occurs because the material inside of glow jewelry is extremely bitter. Your dog is just reacting to the taste rather than any harmful chemicals or health hazards. Ingesting the glow-in-the-dark material is not that serious.

Silica Gel

Silica gel is labeled as toxic and can be very dangerous to humans. However, if dogs ingest silica gel, it only really causes mild upset stomach. This can seem like the silica gel is toxic, but it’s actually not cause for alarm if your dog consumes silica gel. If your dog is smaller, the packet could get lodged in their throat or intestines, but this is not very likely. As it turns out, silica gel is not so bad after all!

Toilet Tablets

As much as we try to prevent them from doing so, many dogs love drinking out of the toilet. This can be a concern for pet parents who have toilet tank tablets, but as long as the tablet has been diluted in toilet water, your pup’s stomach should only be mildly upset. However, if your pet does chew directly on toilet tablets, this can cause chemical burns in their mouth, so you should seek attention from your vet if they do so.

Ant Traps

While it may seem counterintuitive, many dogs are enticed by ant traps. They frequently contain peanut butter or sugar to attract insects, so this makes them smell and taste delicious for pets, too. Luckily, an upset stomach is generally the most serious side effect of consuming one of these traps. The more serious hazard to your dog’s health is, again, the plastic from the traps, which can get lodged in your dog’s throat or cause blockages in their intestines.

These household items may seem like reason for concern, but they’re actually not as hazardous as you may think. Keeping your dog safe at home just got that much easier.