Dogs and Chocolate Don’t Mix!
September 23, 2010
If you take a bite of chocolate, you’ll want more because it tastes so good. Your dog will do the same thing. Dogs love the taste of chocolate. But here’s the thing, chocolate doesn’t love dogs. The problem is, if your dog eats too much chocolate, he/she could be ingesting a lethal dose of poison.
Why is chocolate lethal for dogs?
Theobromine is a naturally occurring stimulant, similar to caffeine, found in chocolate. It is the theobromine that is so dangerous. It attacks a dog’s nervous system and heart.
The symptoms will vary for each dog depending on the amount of chocolate, the size of the dog, and the type of chocolate swallowed.
Within a few hours of ingesting chocolate, a dog might vomit or have diarrhea. Later, as more of the theobromine is absorbed, the heart rate increases, causing arrhythmia, muscle twitching, increased urination or excessive panting. If the dose is large enough, the dog may have seizures that lead to coma and perhaps death.
It isn’t easy to say how much chocolate is too much chocolate. If a dog licks chocolate frosting off your finger, it’s not going to cause a serious problem, but if he eats the whole chocolate cake, that’s a different story.
What if your dog eats a candy bar? Chocolate bars have some of the highest levels of theobromine. A Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate bar has 184 mg of theobromine. Compared to a cup of chocolate milk with 35 mg of theobromine and you can see that the chocolate bar packs more of a punch!
Ignore those big, cute, doggy eyes begging for your chocolate treats. Unless, of course, if those eyes belong to your husband, then you should probably share!
For more information go to www.petMD.com.
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