As indicated by the American Pet Product Association, roughly 68% of families in the United States have a pet. That is about one hundred million homes! Pets tend to put an extraordinary strain on a wide range of household fixtures–particularly plumbing. Here are a couple of tips pet owners should keep in mind when it comes to protecting your pet and your home’s plumbing:

1. Bath Time
When you’re planning on giving your pet a bath, we HIGHLY recommend utilizing a drain stopper or strainer to block animal hair from entering the drain. Most pets, dogs especially, shed a lot of hair, thus by securing your drains during bath time you’re preventing drain clogs. Reduce the risk of a slow-moving drain by utilizing this tip, your drains will thank you.

2. Keep the toilet lid closed
Does your pet love to drink toilet bowl water? Assuming this is the case, we recommend that you, and every other person in your home, get into the habit of keeping the lid closed. The residue left from the cleaners and chemicals you use to keep your toilet clean can be extremely harmful to ingest. If you also make sure your pet always has plenty of water left out for them, they will generally avoid drinking from the toilet.

3. Do not flush down cat litter.
Cat litter doesn’t belong down the toilet regardless of whether the packaging claims it’s “flushable”. To maintain a strategic distance from a clogged toilet, it’s wise to only flush down waste and toilet paper.

4. Take caution of your pet digging in the yard.
It is possible for water lines and sewer lines to be found as shallow as 18 inches below the surface of your lawn. If your puppy loves to dig holes, ensure that they’re not burrowing sufficiently enough where they can possibly put a hole through your water line or sewer line.

5. Make sure your faucets and shower heads have pressure balancing valves.
Have you at any point been in the shower when somebody flushes the toilet and the temperature gets increasingly hot or cold? We’ve presumably all been there. By installing pressure balancing valves, you can evade this issue in your shower and sinks. This will diminish the danger of burning your pet during bath time!

6. Cover up exposed pipes
Similar to how children love to open cabinet doors, pets love to chew on things. You may avoid an unnecessary trip to the vet by making sure any exposed pipes and wires are covered. On an off chance that your pet chews through a pipe, fixing the subsequent burst may be an expensive issue. It may likewise harm the encompassing home or, worst of all, injure your pet! You’ll protect your home, your plumbing, and your pet all at once if you make sure to cover any of your home’s exposed pipes.

7. Rinse dirty pets off outside
Rolling around in the dirt is every dog’s fantasy, however it can likewise be a plumbing nightmare. When you rinse a muddy puppy off in the bath, there is plenty of muddy fur going down your drain. Unfortunately, that fur clumps together just as stubbornly in a drain as it does on your dog. Which will eventually lead to clogged drains. To prevent any drain-clogging potential, we suggest that you pre-wash your pet before taking them into the bath. Once you have expelled enough dirt, take your pet inside to finish the job.

8. Keep cleaning chemicals out of reach.
On the off chance that your pet consumes your cleaning supplies, they could make themselves seriously ill. Take precaution and ensure that your bathroom cleaners are either up out of reach or behind locked cabinet doors.

**Special Tip: Abstain from using any chemical drain cleaners in any case. Not only are chemical drain cleaners toxic to pets, they’re actually extremely harmful to the pipes as well!

In the event that your darling family pet has caused a plumbing issue, don’t panic. Simply call the experts at Plumbing Boys! Regardless of how unshakable the clog or awful the burs, we will take care of the problem. We offer emergency plumbing services 24/7 at (818) 823-7522!