Public Service Announcement: Dogs and Chocolate
Thursday, March 12, 2009 at 07:15AM Dogs and chocolate do not mix. We know this by personal experience. Our little three pound Yorkie once ate a bag of M&M's that she stole out of one of the boys' Easter baskets and spent an overnight at the vet for observation after a stomach pumping. Good thing we found the empty bag under the couch and put two and two together. We know of a Vizsla that died after eating a pound of chocolate left on the porch as a gift for his owner who was in the hospital recovering from an accident. No one was there to see the signs and by the time the dog was discovered, shaking and trembling, it was too late.
Why am I telling you this? Maybe you didn't know this. Maybe you've never explained it to your children.
Here's an interactive chart that will show you just how much chocolate is too much, based on the weight of your dog and the kind of chocolate consumed. (There's a little orange tab on a slider right to the right of the cute little Doberman Pincer puppy that you can scroll with in case you have trouble figuring it out like I did).
Chocolate is stored on the top shelf in our house. If you've read my blog for any length of time, you know why. We live with an unrepentant thief:
Here are some other 'no no's' for dogs.
Reader Comments (6)
I think my Beagle is either a canine anomaly or maybe Beagles just have stronger stomachs, because our Sally ate two packages of chocolate covered almonds without even a suspicious burp.
Now, black licorice on the other hand... that was another story.
I think beagles are in a class by themselves when it comes to eating stuff!
I've been away from blogging for a week and have to say that I love the new look of your blog Kim!
The dog we used to have adored chocolate....we always worried about her because she would try to get into it all the time. Apparently she had a stomach of iron though. One day she ate an entire chocolate cake I had put on the very back of the countertop and she had no sickness from it whatsoever. She worried the heck out of us though!
Hi Angie! Hope you had a good week off and ready to come back refreshed and ready to go! Whew! That was lucky!
Dear stayed with a family in England whose dog died while they were at church on Easter. The dog had found all the hidden chocolate for the Easter egg hunt and had eaten it all. They found him dead with a piece of chocolate hanging out of his mouth and there was no candy to be found by the Easter Egg hunters...
Oh, that's sad! It's funny how some dogs survive after eating a bunch and others die after just a little bit. Ivy tried to eat a twist tie today . . . goofy dog.
Okay, here's how loopy I am. When I saw the links for sour cream...coffee.....cherry cheesecake, I thought, "Oh goody, recipes!"
I think I need another cup of coffee....
Oh, that's funny! And that reminds me; I need to post up another recipe--it's been a while!
Good and timely post, Kim. I had a cocker spaniel who developed seizures over a fairly short period of time (a couple of months) and died right before Christmas in 2003 - based on some x-rays that had been taken during that time, the vet said that she most likely had developed a tumor that was pressing on the brain stem which caused the seizures, but I was so afraid that I had either allowed her to eat something that caused it, or that she had gotten into something.....
I did research off and on about what foods dogs can and can't have, and the list would surprise you. Things like raisins/grapes, macadamia nuts (think macadamia nut cookie - minus any actual pieces of chocolate), caffeine (including coffee and cola), leaves from potatoes and tomatoes, onions, garlic.... With some of those things (like onions and/or garlic ) I've heard it depends on the dogs, but when the websites say that it breaks down the dog's red blood cells and that large amounts over time cause anemia and possible kidney failure from leaking hemoglobin, I figure it's not worth the risk.
That chart made me feel better, though, about chocolate!! I never let my dog eat any milk or dark chocolate or cocoa, but I had given her a few bits of cookie dough that had white chocolate flavoring in it.
So sad about your cocker spaniel. That must've been hard. Poor Eve is failing and we don't expect we'll have her much longer. It breaks my heart to think of losing her someday.
Your new layout is very fresh and pretty - but my sore eyes have big trouble reading any of it because of the very low contrasts. However that's not a big problem for me since I usually do the reading in the Google reader anyway.
How great that you post about this! I always talk to people about chocolate being pure poison to dogs, but sadly they mostly don't take it seriously. Maybe the stubborn, proud idiots need to kill one dog before they get it :( Xylitol is an ingredient that's very widely used here in Finland, and that's another very dangerous substance to dogs. But I didn't know about the grapes and onions - not that I give those to my pooches, but they're known to have played football with a grape... About the nuts, wondering if it's just the macadamias or hazelnuts etc as well?
Back when I used to compete with my old dogs, after having done our part my first golden retriever used to love licking the bottom of my coffee cup after I'd drank first. It wasn't much more than just a smell but since learning about coffee being dangerous to dogs too I haven't given that to them either.
And knowing the risks, what's the point of giving this stuff to them anyway? Especially since there are plenty of safe, good treats for them!