Our Hound Is A Chocoholic...eeeek!

[countrypaws]

My wife and I exchanged Valentine cards and some chocolate on Saturday evening. Mid day yesterday I came upstairs to find a bag of Peanut Chews opened and half eaten with maybe 12 wrappers of the small chocolate covered peanut chews on the floor and our oldest boy, Caesar (8-1/2) looking very pleased with himself.

 

I have always been told chocolate is toxic to dogs so we were mortified at this development. We estimated that if each of these candies had 1/2 oz. of chocolate (probably high since the candies are mostly a peanut chew with a thin chocolate coating) so Caesar ate at the most about 6 oz. of chocolate. Checking the internet quickly they said a dog needed to eat about 1 oz. per pound of weight to have severe effects. Caesar weighs about 70 lbs. and he ate approx. 6 oz. of chocolate (probably less) so it didn't seem like he was in big trouble. He acted very happy with himself with no symptoms.

 

So we called our best two greyhound advisors. One said to give him some hydrogen peroxide and get him to urp up everything before it can all be absorbed. The other said that the quantity was so small that he would likely be fine if you did nothing and inducing vomiting was likely not necessary and maybe a little extreme.

 

We decided that if Caesar reacted badly we would never forgive ourselves for leaving the candy where he could get it and then doing nothing. We really didn't want to squirt something down his throat and make him hurl. But I ran to the drug store and bought some hydrogen peroxide, administered a tablespoon into his mouth with a small plastic syringe, and took him outside to wait for the effects. Within about three minutes he urped up a ton of peanuts and chocolate and we got rid of the remnants where they could not be re-eaten. Caesar snoozed away the afternoon and was fine.

 

Does anyone have any experience with greyhounds eating chocolate? Is the concern about small amounts of chocolate over-hyped or has there been serious consequences for greyhounds who have eaten chocolate and not been treated.

Edited February 15, 2010 by countrypaws

[Guest Energy11]

To start, I am happy he is okay :-)) I would have done the same thing, ... make mine vomit. RE: the amounts of chocolate and it's toxicity, I know, during the holidays, there was a thread about this. You might want to do a search and keep the info. some place convenient, just in case.

 

Hope everything continues to work out well. You might see some diarrhea with Ceasar, and most likely some peanut parts. Good Luck and many hugs!

 

 

[rallyp]

That's exactly what I have done. Lima Bean has gotten into large amounts of chocolate three different times over the last couple years and the amounts were probably about 30-60% of what they say is toxic. I figured I wasn't going to take any chances so I gave her the hydrogen peroxide and made her throw it all up. (Weird side note, she loved the hydrogen peroxide too ). She has also stolen a chocolate bar out of my bag on a couple of occasions and I didn't bother making her throw up for that. I don't think I've ever noticed any lingering ill effects.

[maximum]

What is it with dogs love, love, loving chocolate?? Max will snarf back anything chocolate over anything else - if there is a plate of chocolate out and a plate meatballs or other meat sort of snack, he'll head right for the chocolate!

 

Fortunately, I've never had to make him throw up - he's never gotten more than a taste - but I would for sure, especially if it was dark chocolate at all

[Guest Greyt_dog_lover]

Let me tell you a funny little story about my boy Bart. Last year I went to the opening day races at Dubuque (where my boy Bart ran), and asked if anyone there knew my boys old owner. I spoke with Bart's trainer and he informed me that Brad (Barts owner) would be along later and he would pass along that I wanted to meet him. We met, he did remember Bart (roman nose hounds are a bit hard to forget) and told me one story in particular: Bart was a favorite of the "Secretary of Races" at that track, after every race that Bart had, the secretary would give Bart a ding dong for his post-race treat. Yes, that was not a typo, a DING DONG. Fast forward to Bart living with me, yes he LOVES chocolate. Before my wife and I figured out that Bart and Olive work as a team to open drawers, cabinets and plastic bins, the two of them devoured assorted chocolate covered nuts, snickers, ect. I have induced vomiting, called the ER many a night. Basically what has been passed along to me from the ER vets is this: White chocolate actually has no cocoa in it, so it is safe, milk chocolate is relatively tolerated in large breeds, dark chocolate is what you have to be careful for. Dark chocolate has a much higher concentration of cocoa (what actually harms the hounds) than milk chocolate. Side note, anything containing xylotol (sugar free candies) is DEADLY. Inducing vomiting is no biggie, don't worry about it, you will probably have to do it a few more times in the future.

 

Chad

[Guest wjamg]

my girl Peace is definitely a chocoholic~~ seems she can smell chocolate through boxes, bags and plastic. At Christmas, she opened a gift bag and took the plastic off a box of expensive chocolates..we did catch her in the act and she was very upset she didn't get to eat the goodies, just destroyed the present.

She has also found a reese wrapper and ate it at the dog park, got into a bag of chocolate when we were on vacation and she was being watched by our daughters. She just loves the stuff..my daughters did have to give her peroxide to make her sick and said she tried to eat what she threw up..augh..I imagine she would eat til death if given the opportunity

[Guest SpicyMom]

Yep. My hounds too. The real culprit in the house though is my 12 yr old Aby cat. He LOVES chocolate cake and frosting. Having rushed him to the vet after he consumed we believe about 1/3 of a 2 layer round cake (really!), the vet induced vomiting (to be sure) but then explained, as one GTer did above, about the very low level of cocoa in american chocolate and chocolate products. Now, if it's expensive Swiss chocolate, he said he would have different advice!

[TheFullHouse]

I know it can be very serious. My Valentines siblings had a sister who got into chocolate and passed away from it. I would have done the same thing and give the hydrogen peroxide.

[Guest mountain4greys]

Here is the link to the chocolate toxicity chart.

 

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/10/pets/chocolate-chart-interactive.html

[Guest Hoolyghans]

Many years ago we had an elderly fox terrier that managed to break into a baby-locked cabinet and eat an entire 12 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. We were at work so some time had passed before we discovered what happened. We did take him to the vet as soon as I saw the shredded bag but after spending 3 days there, he didn't make it. Granted he was a little dog and the vet felt his age played a big part in his inability to recuperate but chocolate absolutely can be toxic and we all need to be vigilant about making sure they can't get at it. In our house (now) all baking type of chocolate goes on the top shelf of an upper cabinet as soon as it enters the house. Regular candy goes on a lower shelf but still in the upper cabinet. Kids know that if they leave candy unattended, they lose it. They also know the dogs get *nothing* that is even remotely chocolate, not even artificially flavored. It's easier to have an across the board rule then try to figure out if it's ok or not.

 

With what your dog got into, the level of actual chocolate was fairly low. Any kind of coating chocolate is diluted with other stuff (oils, milk products) which would reduce the toxicity. Same thing with baked goods, eating 4 oz of cake isn't nearly as bad as eating 4 oz of baking chocolate.

[Guest johnandheidi]

Walter ate a chocolate cupcake right out of my mom's hand over the weekend. My mom didn't even realize it was gone, it happened so fast. I was a little freaked out. My sister, being the resident dog expert, explained that the chocolate issue has to do with the % of cocoa and the size of your dog, just like the chart that was previously posted, and that it would likely have no effect on Walter since the total amount of cocoa in an individual cupcake is negligible. A bar of baking chocolate, on the other hand, is a different story. In the end, we did nothing and Walter was just fine, though Jeff was extremely jealous. (It was a chocolate cupcake with butter cream frosting. Maybe if that frosting had been chocolate, too, we might have induced vomiting...)

 

(On a side note, I can remember a time when we didn't know that chocolate was bad for dogs. Like a hundred years ago when my sister and I were kids we used to feed the family dog Oreos straight from the bag. He LOVED Oreos. What were we thinking? He must've had an iron constitution; he was a small **-a-poo who lived to be 15.)

 

As a rule, I think no chocolate for dogs is a good one to follow.

heidi

[Trudy]

 

Does anyone have any experience with greyhounds eating chocolate? Is the concern about small amounts of chocolate over-hyped or has there been serious consequences for greyhounds who have eaten chocolate and not been treated.

 

 

All depends on the dog.

I don't make the dogs barf up chocolate. Ryan has eaten a pound of chocoalte before with no ill effects, half of it dark. The amt of chocoalte that he could figure out how to get to if he really really really tried, aren't enough to have me induce vomiting, unless somebody is showing distress from it.

Bakers chocoalte is kept safely away and unless he wants to figure out the pantry and make it to the top shelf, he's not ever finding that.

[countrypaws]

Thanks for all the perspectives. It seems that several things apply. 1. the type of chocolate, dark chocolate being the worst 2. the size of the dog and the amount eaten. I have learned that making the hound throw up with hydrogen peroxide is not a big deal. Caesar threw up about five times in six minutes, emptied out his stomach, and slept the rest of the day with no apparent ill effects. Today he has forgotten the whole episode. If I feared my dog had ingested a poison, I would not hesitate to use hydrogen peroxide again (as I did yesterday).

 

One final note... It is not apparently not just the cocoa that is the toxin but an ingredient in cocoa...

 

"Chocolate contains theobromine. A naturally occurring stimulant found in the cocoa bean, theobromine increases urination and affects the central nervous system as well as heart muscle. While amounts vary by type of chocolate, it's the theobromine that is poisonous to dogs."

Thanks again to all of you who posted your experiences. It was very helpful.

 

People on Greytalk rock!

 

Larry B.

 

Edited February 15, 2010 by countrypaws