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Making pet parenting easy
Chocolate poisoning in dogs
This entry was posted on 2014-07-01.
Chocolate, derived from the roasted seeds of Theobroma cacao contains theobromine and caffeine both of which are toxic to dogs and may prove fatal if ingested in large enough quantities.
Symptoms and Types
The symptoms that your dog presents with depend largely on the amount and type of chocolate that they ingest. These include vomiting, diarrhoea, raised body temperature, muscle rigidity, rapid breathing, increased heart rate, seizures and advanced signs including cardiac failure, weakness and coma.
The types of chocolate that you should be aware of include:
- Milk chocolate - with the ingestion of approximately 42g per kilogram of body weight, mild toxicity can occur while severe toxicity occurs when 120g per kilogram of body weight is ingested.
- Semi-sweet chocolate - 18g per kilogram of body weight leads to mild toxicity and severe toxicity occurs with the ingestion of about 60g per kilogram of body weight.
- Baking chocolate - This type of chocolate has the highest concentration of caffeine and theobromine and therefore as little as 6g per kilogram of body weight can be toxic.
Causes
It is the theobromine and caffeine contained in the chocolate that is toxic to dogs. Therefore you must always be cautious feeding your dog anything that contains chocolate and always keep it out of reach.
Treatment
There is no specific antidote for chocolate toxicity, however if you suspect your dog has ingested chocolate, you should seek the help of a veterinarian as soon as possible. The veterinarian may advise you on steps to follow in the meantime before taking your dog in and further treatment may involve inducing vomiting, controlling seizures and fluid management. Your dog should also be fed a bland diet for several days to avoid any further problems but your veterinarian will be able to give you further advice.
Prevention
It is important to not feed your dog chocolate or chocolate containing products and ensure that it is out of their reach bearing in mind that dogs have a keen sense of smell.