“Dogs eat a lot of stuff – they’ll open a pantry and eat five pounds of dog food before the owners catch them,” said Dr. Hohenhaus. “A dog puked a shark toy. So if you have a dog that goes to the country for the weekend and eats horse droppings, he gets diarrhea on Monday morning. “
In the case of pets that have picked up cicadas and ended up in the veterinarian’s emergency room, cause and effect are not necessarily obvious. “I don’t know if the cicada clams made the dog sick or it was the Kleenexes and the trash the dog ate out of the bathroom basket.”
However, cicadas can stimulate some cats, especially dogs, to eat. (Think Potato Chips: Can You Only Eat One?)
“Because cicadas are so easy to catch, some animals go into town to eat them,” says Dr. Cliffs that may see a handful of dogs a week for this reason. The risks don’t come from the beetles, she said, but from dehydration related to vomiting and diarrhea or from ingestion of pesticides sprayed on the cicadas.
For dogs that can’t stop with cicadas, “think of a basket muzzle,” said Dr. Cliffs. “It’s beneficial and doesn’t prevent dogs from panting and drinking.”
Also, try walking your dog at dawn and dusk, advised Dr. Wismer when cicadas are the least active. Since cicadas can be found in and around old trees, avoid routes that involve them.
The Heebie-Jeebies towards domestic animals and cicadas mostly arises from the adjustment of several factors. There is the one time occurrence of the bugs in almost two decades. And the increased attachment and overprotection that owners have developed over the past year during lockdowns towards their pets. In addition, veterinarians said the Internet and, uh, the news media are fueling people’s concerns.
“But basically it’s different for us than the coronavirus,” said Dr. Cliffs.
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