Is Chocolate Is Poisonous to Dogs?

xocats

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Apparently Chocolate is poisonous to dogs.

I was reading some articles at Scientific American.com and ran into this info. about dogs and chocolate.
I thought that members with doggies would be interested.
Better safe than sorry.


http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?cha...761C503072A5EB
 

momofmany

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It is toxic. My neighbor's dog got into a bag of Hershey's kisses one time and man she was sick from it! Never, never leave anything chocolate in reach of dogs (or cats for that matter).
 

arlyn

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Theobromine and caffiene in chocolates are both toxic to animals, don't leave it in reach of any pets or small children.
 

katiemae1277

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my dog got into my easter basket when I was little, we were very lucky in that he didn't get sick
 

sharky

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yes choclate is toxic /... but when Gigi my dog ate a choc chip cookie I called the ER vet and they said NO it is not good for them but it is the DARK that poses the most risk
 
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xocats

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How toxic is it to cats?
 

miagi's_mommy

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It is VERY bad for dogs. just like rasians, grapes, and onions are bad for dogs.
 

shorty14788

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Chocolate is toxic to both dogs and cats. Milk chocolate is not as toxic. Bakers chocolate is the worst and dark chocolate falls in between. I know for a small dog to get SERIOUSLY ill from milk chocolate, they would have to eat an entire candy bar. But for a small dog to get sick from bakers chocolate, it would only take one small square....

Here are some sites that list things that are toxic to animals....
http://www.heathershomemadedogtreats.com/toxic.html
http://www.risingwoods.org/OURFAMILY...odsfordogs.htm
http://www.entirelypets.com/toxicfoods2.html
 

goldenkitty45

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Yes, the darker the chocolate the higher the "poison". Small dogs eating a lot of chocolate at one time are most suseptable. Keno's a lab. She did eat a bite or two of a brownie I foolishly left on the bed!

She paid for it with 2 days of diarraha - but we are very careful since then to not let the dog or cat eat any kind of chocolate!
 

dixie_darlin

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Originally Posted by sharky

yes choclate is toxic /... but when Gigi my dog ate a choc chip cookie I called the ER vet and they said NO it is not good for them but it is the DARK that poses the most risk
Jake once ate 1/2 a pound of hershey's dark chocolate kisses.. I rushed him to the vet, and amazingly and luckily he was perfectly fine... He has an iron stomach...he's also ate hairbrushes, lighters, and ANYTHING else he can get his mouth on... This was when we first adopted him and didn't know or think he was a chewer... we've since puppy proofed the house... and still have it that way even though he's over a year old
 

awsome pawsomes

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Originally Posted by DixieDarlin256

Jake once ate 1/2 a pound of hershey's dark chocolate kisses.. I rushed him to the vet, and amazingly and luckily he was perfectly fine... He has an iron stomach...he's also ate hairbrushes, lighters, and ANYTHING else he can get his mouth on... This was when we first adopted him and didn't know or think he was a chewer... we've since puppy proofed the house... and still have it that way even though he's over a year old
My dog Boof (rotti x) is 11 years old and still chews anything he can get his paws on.



I didn't know Grapes were bad for dogs.
 

starryeyedtiger

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Yes- chocolate is toxic to dogs, cats, rabbits, and a number of other animals. With dogs- it depends on the amount they ingest, their health, and their body size. It also depends on how pure the chocolate is as well. Found this out a few weeks ago. My niece Taylor had made some chocolate pudding....and sat it on the table (they are always good about putting the food out of their animals reach- but she just forgot that time) and their lab/rat terrier mix Bailey ate the ENTIRE bowl of dark chocolate pudding. My sister freaked out and called me asking what to do. So i called my vet. He told us to give her some hydrogen peroxide (i forgot how much he said) to make her vomit the chocolate up. Well...Kimmy said she never threw up- so the vet said to give her more- this happened two more times before the vet said she just had a bit of a tolerance to it and that the pudding was probably diluted a bit from the other ingredients. We brought her in to see him and he checked her over. He said she was ok and not to worry. She never vomited or got sick. We were lucky. So yeah- chocolate is toxic to animals (but the side effects vary depending on the consistanct, and other factors of the animal). So thankfully, Baliey was ok- but it still goes to show that it is never ok to give a doggie chocolate (or a kitty or a bunny). Just to be on the safe side- Colin and I always put our chocolate/candy in the pantry (it has a door to it that they can't get in to ) and it goes on the top shelf in the pantry just in case.
 

goldenkitty45

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A lab/rat terrier mix???????????? what in the heck does that dog look like????
Can you post a picture - I'm assuming the mom was the lab! Don't even want to know how that happened
 

sweet72947

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My lab ate some chocolate because I foolishly left a box of chocolates low enough for her to get to them. She threw them up all over the hallway. Eeeyuck nothing worse than chocolate vomit, IMO.

Grapes, raisins and nuts have been said to be dangerous to dogs, but I think its more that some dogs have allergies to those things. My vet gives his dogs grapes as treats and has never had a problem. Chocolate though, is dangerous to ALL dogs! (And try not to let dogs have tomato sauce or you'll be sorry! Phew!)
 

2dogmom

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There are two different thigns going on with dogs eating chocolate.

One is the toxicity from the "chocolate" part of it. They can die. The chemcial that is toxic is most concentrated in baker's chocolate, less so on dark chocolate, and dilute in milk chocolate.

But eating milk chocolate, which contains sugar and fat, will just plain make your dog sick if he/she eats enough of it. So the vomiting and diarrhea are for sure not good, but these are not symptoms of poisoning. Trembling for example would be a sign.
 

epona

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As I understand it, chocolate is toxic to any animal that doesn't sweat. This includes cats, dogs, and birds (that I know of) and probably many others. There is a chemical in chocolate, as I understand it, which raises the body temperature, and if an animal has no sweat glands it can prove fatal if enough is ingested.

I could be off the mark here, but I am fairly confident that I remember reading that somewhere. If it is not due to lack of sweat glands, there is a reason why certain animals cannot eat it anyway. There have been deaths of pets as a result of people using cocoa-husk mulch for their bedding plants, I am certain of that at least!
 

katl8e

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One of my mother's Bassett hounds ate 4 1/2 1-lb boxes of Turtles candy (who knew that a Bassett could climb?). The vet said that she was almost at the point of renal failure, when Mom took her in. My dad now keeps his candy on top of an 8-ft shelf, with no chair nearby.
 

starryeyedtiger

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Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

A lab/rat terrier mix???????????? what in the heck does that dog look like????
Can you post a picture - I'm assuming the mom was the lab! Don't even want to know how that happened
Bailey is a doll! She's a cutie pie
She looks like a little moo cow
She's black and white spotted and medium sized. Her "brother" is a chinese crested- Mac....lol they're quite the interesting dog pack
here's the picture you asked for. The mom was actually the rat terrier and the dad was the lab. My sister and her family lived in pennsylvania for a while and were driving through Amish country when they noticed a sign about puppies- so they went to look. They noticed how underfed and in what bad shape the Bailey was in as a pup- and immediately adopted her from that family and took her home. She's been in our family ever since!

these are the only pictures of have of her and mac. (i was taking pictures of Colin and my great niece Kaitlynn Easter egg hunting. The pups were trying to help
(sorry for the elbow in the picture))

(bailey is the one that looks like a little moo cow and mac is the nekid one
)
 

fats mcgee

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Raisins and grapes cause renal failure--it's totally not worth risking giving it to your dogs.
 
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