Dark Chocolate Ingestion

[Guest Greyt_dog_lover]

So my wife and I went out for Cinco De Mayo and when we came home, I found the remanants of some kit kats. My wife immediately remembered that we left a bunch (10 packages of the "fun size") of chocolate on the dining room table in preparation for a birthday gift. Needless to say my heart started racing. We quickly deduced that only two packages were gone. I found the second, it was the dreaded "dark" chocolate. The package that my boy got into and ate EVERYTHING was the 3 Musketeer's Dark Chocolate Mint bars. The package was a 4.07 oz. variety. I called Dorothy (CIGA expert) to see if she knew off the top of her head how much dark chocolate was fatal, she didnt know. I called a local e-vet clinic. They were WONDERFUL. They asked the important questions, how long ago, how much does the dog weigh, how old is the dog and how much of what type of chocolate. I answered all the questions. The vet, yes they had an e-vet take the call, asked me to hold. Two minutes seemed like 20 hours. She came back and said that the amount of that specific brand of chocolate is not fatal, and probably not even enough to get him sick. She was right. He didnt even have an upset tummy. No puking, the big D, oh yea, but that is totally acceptable. So, if anyone is wondering, the 4 oz. package of Fun Size Dark Chocolate Mint 3 Musketeers is not enough to hurt an 80lb 5yr old greyhound. I found out the hard way.

 

Chad

[Guest brandi007]

Glad to hear your boy is alright.

 

My Foxy died from eating chocolate, the amount he ingested shouldn't of been fatal but was - keep a close eye on him and sending lots of good thoughts your way.

[Trudy]

If you haven't already, look up chocolate toxicity in dogs - then bookmark it for the next time. Even dark chocolate, it takes quite a bit of chocolate.

And what you have in those candy bars isn't all chocolate either.

[ahicks51]

If you haven't already, look up chocolate toxicity in dogs - then bookmark it for the next time. Even dark chocolate, it takes quite a bit of chocolate.

And what you have in those candy bars isn't all chocolate either.

 

The plant from which chocolate hails is under threat from two fungi; Witches' broom (Crinipellis perniciosa) and frosty pod rot (Moniliophthora rorei) have started to seriously impact cacao harvests. As a result, many of the new-ish types of chocolate are no such thing; they're "mocklate," more than anything else. Further consolidation of the chocolate industry (like Hershey's buying up Dagoba and Schmidt and Scharffen Berger) has led to the extinguishing of a number of "real" chocolate products.

 

Back in '07, the chocolate industry started lobbying congress to legally label partially hydrogenated vegetable oil + artificial sweeteners + fake milk as "chocolate," even when there's no cocoa butter present. I'm not sure if that ever passed or not, but chocolate is quickly becoming "chocolate" out of market necessity. It mimics how high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) replaced sugar in a number of products- and is now a universal truth. Just try to find hot dogs without HFCS or corn syrup solids. Now Pepsi has caught on to the fad of Mexican cola imports- products that contain sugar instead of HFCS- and branding it as such.

 

Expect to see a resurgence of "real" chocolate, but it won't be for a long time.

[Guest Greyt_dog_lover]

Thank you for the information. So basically I would wager a guess that unless my dog gets directly into the "bakers dark chocolate" or the semi-sweet chocolate (again the baking variety), then there is a pretty good chance that its not going to be life threatening. Of course I would still call an evet in the event of accidental ingestion.

[Guest Spencers_Greyt]

Very scary! I'm glad it turned out alright!

 

[Guest Che_mar_Cody]

Whew!! Glad for the good news!