Halloween is the busiest evening of the year for a front door in Guildford, and that is the real hazard. Most pets come through it fine if the candy is stored high, the door is managed, and the dog or cat has somewhere quiet to be. The usual problems are chocolate, pets bolting out, and chewed decorations.

Why one evening causes so much trouble

Nothing about Halloween is dangerous on its own. What makes it different is that four or five ordinary risks all land in the same three hours. A bowl of chocolate sits at waist height. The front door opens every few minutes. Strangers in unusual outfits appear on the step. Something is plugged in, lit up or dangling where it was not yesterday. Then the house goes quiet and nobody notices the wrapper on the rug until morning.

Busy residential blocks like those around 148th and the neighbourhoods off 104 Avenue can see a steady stream of visitors from dusk until well after dark. A dog who normally barks twice at the postal carrier is being asked to do something far harder, fifty times over, while the house fills with the smell of sugar.

The good news is that almost all of this is solved by decisions made in the afternoon rather than reactions made at eight in the evening.

The candy bowl

Chocolate is the most common Halloween hazard for dogs. The amount and the type both matter. Dark and baking chocolate carry far more of the compound that causes the problem than milk chocolate does, and a small dog clears it far more slowly than a large one. The signs that usually appear first are restlessness, panting, vomiting and a racing heart, and they can take several hours to show up.

Sugar-free candy and gum deserve more attention than they usually get. Many contain xylitol, which in dogs can cause a sudden and severe drop in blood sugar, and in larger amounts can injure the liver. A dog who gets into a handful of sugar-free mints is a phone call straight away, not a wait-and-see.

Raisins and anything containing grapes are a third category. The amount that causes kidney injury varies so much between individual dogs that there is no safe quantity to reason with. If raisin boxes went into the bowl this year, keep them out of reach entirely.

Then there are the wrappers. Foil, cellophane and lollipop sticks pass through most dogs uneventfully, but a mouthful of them can also lodge, and that is how a sugar problem turns into a surgical one. If your dog ate the candy packaging as well as the candy, say so when you phone.

• Keep the bowl in a high cupboard, not on the hall table.
• Hand candy out from a container you are holding, not one a dog can reach.
• Give the children a rule for the sorting stage: on the table, never on the floor.
• Walk the floors and the yard with the lights on before bed, and again in the morning.

If you want the detail on the phone call itself, read what to do if your dog eats something toxic before the 31st rather than on it.

The front door

Halloween is one of the easiest nights of the year for a pet to get out, and the mechanism is usually the same: the door is open, the animal is already wound up, and nobody is watching the gap at ankle height. A cat who has never shown the slightest interest in outside will go through it, and once outside in the dark with strangers everywhere, that cat does not come straight back.

The fix is physical, not behavioural. Put the dog or cat behind a second closed door before the first visitors arrive, in a bedroom or a laundry room with water, a litter box if they need one, and something to chew or sit on. Leave a radio or the television on. Then nothing that happens at the front of the house is their problem.

Check the identification before the evening starts, because the night a pet goes missing is the night you find out the tag fell off in July. Make sure the collar tag is readable and that your microchip pet identification details are registered to a phone number you still use. We can scan a chip and confirm the number for you during a visit, but we cannot update the registry on your behalf, so that part is worth doing yourself this week.

Costumes, if you are doing costumes

Plenty of dogs genuinely do not mind a costume, and some clearly enjoy the attention. The honest test is simple: put it on at home, in daylight, days before. A pet who freezes, tucks their tail, paws at it or tries to back out of it has answered the question.

If the costume stays, check three things. Nothing should cross the throat or restrict the chest. Nothing should cover the eyes or block an ear. And nothing should have a dangling piece, a bell, a ribbon or an elastic that could be chewed off and swallowed, because that is the part that ends up needing our surgical services rather than a laugh on the porch.

Never leave a costumed pet unsupervised, even for the length of answering the door. A collar or a strap caught on a stair rail is a genuine emergency.

Decorations that cause real problems

Glow sticks and glow bracelets are the ones people underestimate. The liquid inside is irritating rather than deadly, but a punctured one causes drooling, foaming, vomiting and a very alarming few minutes, and cats will absolutely bite into them. If that happens, wipe the liquid off the coat and the muzzle so your pet does not swallow more of it while grooming, and phone us if the drooling or the vomiting does not settle quickly.

Lit candles inside carved pumpkins sit at exactly cat-tail height, so switch to a battery light. Electrical cords running across a floor are a chew risk for puppies and a trip risk for everyone. Fake cobwebbing tangles around legs and gets eaten. Corn husks, miniature pumpkins and gourds on a porch display are mostly a stomach upset risk, though a whole small gourd can block a small dog.

One more: a carved pumpkin left out for a week grows mould, and a dog who eats mouldy material can start trembling very quickly indeed. When the pumpkin starts to sag, it goes in the garbage, not on the compost heap where the dog goes. If your dog has already eaten mouldy pumpkin, or anything else mouldy, that needs attention the same hour rather than the next morning: phone us, or the nearest open emergency hospital if we are closed, and go.

The walk, and the days either side

If you walk your dog on the 31st, go early, before dusk and before the costumes are out. Keep the leash short on the sidewalk. Fireworks turn up in some Surrey neighbourhoods in the last week of October, and a dog who has never reacted to a bang can still bolt from one at close range.

Carry a light, wear something reflective, and be realistic about how little a driver can see at six in the evening at the end of October. The dark comes in fast this month and the first week of it catches everybody out.

What to watch for afterwards

Most Halloween problems show up within a few hours, but some of the stomach ones take a day. Phone us if you see repeated vomiting or diarrhea, drooling, restlessness or pacing, trembling, a racing heart, unsteadiness on the feet, a swollen or painful belly, refusal to eat, or unproductive retching. If we are closed when you notice any of these, phone the nearest open emergency hospital instead and go straight there.

Tremors, a seizure, collapse, pale gums or repeated retching with nothing coming up mean now rather than later. Phone us, then bring them straight to our emergency veterinary services team. We are open 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM on Saturday and 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Sunday. Halloween falls on a Saturday this year, so we close at 8:00 PM while the evening is still going, and we do not open again until 9:00 AM on Sunday. If something happens after we close, overnight, or early on the Sunday morning, drive to the nearest open emergency hospital and phone them on your way.

Where the quantity or the ingredient genuinely matters, our pet diagnostics team can measure blood sugar and check how the liver and kidneys are holding up, rather than anyone estimating it from the outside. A hands-on medical assessment fills in the rest.

A short plan for the afternoon of the 31st

• Candy into a high cupboard. All of it, including the bags still in the car.
• Set up the quiet room now, with water, a bed, a litter box if needed, and background sound.
• Check the collar tag and confirm the chip registration is current.
• Walk the dog before dusk.
• Swap any real candles for battery lights.
• Decide who is on door duty and who is on pet duty. Not the same person.
• Save our number, and the number of the nearest open emergency hospital, in your phone tonight rather than at 9:00 PM on Halloween when we have already closed.

Frequently asked questions

My dog ate one chocolate bar. Is that an emergency?

Possibly, and it is not a question to settle at home. Phone us and have the wrapper in your hand. Your dog’s weight, the type of chocolate and how long ago it happened all change the answer, and those three facts are what the veterinary team needs in order to tell you whether your dog has to be seen. That call takes two minutes.

How do I know if candy had xylitol in it?

Read the ingredient panel rather than the front of the packaging, and look for xylitol or birch sugar. It turns up most in sugar-free gum, mints and some sugar-free chocolate. If the wrapper is gone and you cannot check, phone us and describe what it was.

Should I give my nervous dog something to calm them down?

Give nothing from your own cupboard, and nothing bought for another animal. Products meant for people can be genuinely harmful to pets, and the right approach depends on the individual animal. Phone us well before the 31st if your dog finds the evening frightening, so the veterinary team can work out what is appropriate for yours.

Is a pet safer outside in the yard during Halloween?

No. A fenced yard on Halloween night is one of the easiest places for a frightened animal to escape from, and gates get left open by visitors. Inside, behind a closed internal door, is the safest place to be.

My cat hides for the whole evening. Is that a problem?

Hiding is a cat managing the situation, and it is fine, as long as the hiding place is indoors and safe. What matters is that they come out, drink and use the litter box afterwards. A cat who is still hiding and not eating the next day deserves a phone call.

What about the pumpkin itself? Is pumpkin bad for dogs?

Plain cooked pumpkin is not a hazard, and small amounts are often perfectly fine. The problems are the carved pumpkin that has been sitting on a porch for a week and gone mouldy, the candle inside it, and the whole raw chunks a dog swallows without chewing.

We are handing out candy for three hours. Will my dog settle eventually?

Some do and some get more wound up with each knock, which is why the quiet room matters more than patience does. A dog barking at the door for three hours is genuinely stressed, not just noisy, and taking them out of the equation early is kinder than hoping they adjust.

Speak to the team at 108 Avenue Animal Hospital

If your dog or cat gets into Halloween candy, a decoration or a costume piece, phone us with the wrapper or the packet in front of you and we will tell you what to do next. If it is late on Halloween night and we are closed, go to the nearest open emergency hospital and phone them while you drive.

Published by the team at 108 Avenue Animal Hospital.

This article is for general educational purposes only and is not a substitute for an in-person veterinary examination or advice about your individual pet. If you have an urgent concern about your pet, contact 108 Avenue Animal Hospital or your nearest emergency veterinary hospital right away.

108 Avenue Animal Hospital
14675 108 Avenue, Surrey, BC V3R 1V9
Phone: (604) 581-1108
Email: info@108aveanimalhospital.com
Hours: Monday to Friday 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM; Saturday 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM; Sunday 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM