1 of our cats ate one of my wifes energy bars that has chocolate!

We got home from grocery shopping and found that one of the three kittens (not sure which one) got into my wife's bag of energy bars that was up on the kitchen table, managed to rip off the wrapper and eat most of the thing.

Cats are 8-9 months old.

It's a peanut butter affair called a ThinkThin chunky peanut butter bar that's layered in chocolate. Ugh!

Called the vet, they wanted us to call the manufacturer but their number gets voicemail and won't be open again until Monday.

We can't be sure which one of the three kittens was involved but I'm pretty sure it's the biggest of the three and the bar is mostly peanut butter in a thin layer of chocolate but there is no way to know how much chocolate was part of this.

I have the ingredients list on the back of the bar but that doesn't talk about what proportion of chocolate is involved (listed as being "glycerin coating (maltitol, cocoa butter, chocolate liquor, sodium caseinate, milk fat, soy lecithin, natural flavors, salt"). I see online that most chocolate contains something called theobromine that is lethal to cats but there's no way to know with this stupid energy bar.

Ideas?

Our vet gave us the number of a national animal poisoning hotline at 800-213-6680 (for Continental United States people like ourselves).

They charge a nominal fee ($35) but had good information about the particular energy bar and given the weight of the cat involved (8 pounds or so) and the fact that he ate less than half of the 2.2 ounces of the bar he will probably be fine but may have a tummy ache and/or some diahrreah but will be otherwise okay.

I learned a lot about types of chocolate and how it affects cats in a hurry: this was milk chocolate, dark chocolate is more harmful and baking chocolate is probably the worst because the ingredient that is toxic to cats is something called theobromine and baking chocolate contains 10 times more of that than ordinary milk chocolate.

Bad stuff though - it can increase the rate and force of contractions of the hear, act as a diuretic, effect gastrointestinal system causing vomiting and diahrreah as well as even ulcers and acts on the nervous system causing convulsions, seizures and even death if eaten in sufficient quantity.

So be careful and keep any chocolate stowed especially if it's a cake or cupcake or something.

The other thing is, they mentioned encouraging the cat to drink water so I'm off to change the water bowl and fill it with fresh.

Here they are. The tabby troublemaker at top left is the one most likely to have been the chocoholic: