What To Do If Your Dog Eats Chocolate
If your dog eats chocolate, he can become very ill, and in some cases it results in death. That’s because chocolate contains a chemical that is very toxic to dogs. It does not mean that every time a dog eats chocolate he will get sick but it does mean that if you are a dog owner, you need to be able to recognize the symptoms of chocolate toxicity and know what to do if your dog ever does get ill from eating chocolate.
Many people claim that their dog has eaten chocolate and they have never had a problem with it. This can be the case. But just because you have not yet had a problem doesn’t mean that you should make a habit of feeding chocolate to your dog. The reason that many dogs do not get sick from eating chocolate is because different kinds of chocolate contain different amounts of theobromine, and its toxicity is based on how much is eaten in relation to the weight of the dog.
Theobromine is the culprit involved when a dog eats chocolate and has a bad reaction. It is a stimulant that does not affect humans, but in dogs and cats can cause problems with the nervous system and a heart arrhythmia. A very small amount of chocolate in a large dog is not going to cause problems, but if your dog should eat a bag of chocolate bars or steal and eat an entire chocolate cake, you need to be on the lookout for the symptoms of theobromine toxicity.
The most immediate symptoms will be vomiting and diarrhea. At the next stage, your dog will have frequent urination and may be irritable or restless. If you recognize the symptoms in the first two hours, the vet can treat your dog by inducing vomiting and with charcoal. If the dog has eaten a large amount of chocolate or it is beyond the two-hour mark, the symptoms can increase to muscle tremors, seizures and even coma and death. At that point, your vet’s treatment will vary depending on the amount of chocolate and the severity of the symptoms.
Although nothing can be exact, guidelines have been established that can help you to know if your dog might have eaten a toxic dose of chocolate. These are based on the weight of your dog and the amount of chocolate consumed. White chocolate has the least toxicity of any chocolate. It would take eating 200 ounces per pound of body weight for your dog to get sick from eating white chocolate. That means 250 pounds of white chocolate for a twenty-pound dog.
With milk chocolate, toxicity can begin with one ounce of chocolate per pound of body weight. That means that if you have a twenty-pound dog, it would take around a pound of chocolate to make him sick. A very small dog, in the ten pound range could be affected by two or three chocolate bars. Sweet cocoa toxicity is set at 0.3 ounces for each pound of body weight. That means on-third of one pound of cocoa could be toxic to a dog who weights twenty pounds. Baking chocolate has a limit of 0.1 ounce per pound of dog weight. That means that two squares of baking chocolate that weigh one ounce each could make a 20-pound dog very sick.
Be sure to take your dog to the vet immediately if you suspect that your dog ate chocolate.