Play safe Holi, take proper care of your pets too

Tribune News Service

Manav Mander

Ludhiana, March 24

Holi, the festival of colours, is the time when everyone wants to indulge in some celebration and fun with vibrant colours. But amid the celebrations, people need to be careful and take precautions for themselves and be extra careful about their pets too.

Colours available in markets these days contain chemicals and are, hence, not safe for the skin and hair. Instead of synthetic colours, people should prefer playing Holi with flowers, green leaves which also adds freshness and fragrance to the celebrations. But owing to shortage of time, people prefer to buy colours from the market, which are synthetic in nature.

Meanwhile, like in case of Diwali, pet owners have to be extra cautious about their best friends during the Holi as well. Even little carelessness during the festival may cause serious health problems in animals.

“It is fun to play with colours and water but their harmful effects could lead to problems related to skin, hair and eye. These chemicals create problems on the skin and hair, in the form of allergy, rash, irritation, infection and much more. Symptoms may vary from mild irritation, dryness to severe form of irritant dermatitis, burning, itching and allergic dermatitis,” said a city-based dermatologist.

One should be extra careful about young ones, newborns and infants, as they have a sensitive skin. The best option is to play with homemade natural colours or flowers. The Department of Floriculture and Landscaping, Punjab Agricultural University, has prepared herbal colours for Holi. The department has used rose and marigold for making gulaal and yellow colour, respectively. The department has come up with value addition of flowers by making gulal out of the former.

Experts from Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University said generally it was considered that the use of dry colours were harmless for dogs but many a times manufacturers mix harmful chemicals in these colours and the same could prove harmful to the pets.

“Most of the colours available in the market are actually a combination of various chemicals such as zinc, lead and mercury sulphate. These chemicals present in the colours may act as accumulative poison and can cause skin and eye allergies, respiratory distress and many sort of toxicities in the pet animals,” they said.

Many times, dogs tend to lick their body. Throwing water filled balloons on them could also cause eye injuries, they added.

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