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What happens when your dog eats chocolate?

Your occasional chocolate chip cookie in your dogs diet may not seem very harmful, but what happens when you give your dog that rich creamy dark chocolate? Baker's chocolate and dark chocolate pose the biggest threat to your dogs health and why is that? The chemical toxicity for a dog is due to methylxanthine. Now that's a big word in the eyes of my crowd so let's break it down to a smaller question. What is methylxanthine or should I say "are"? methylxanthine are mostly compounds found in respiratory medications. They can also be stimulants to increase heart rate and relax muscles. So, what does this chemical have to do with your dog? Chocolate contains methylxanthine which causes diarrhea, vomiting, hyperactivity, inflammation of the pancreas, abnormal heart rhythm, seizures, and if you give your dog enough chocolate it can result in death. With Halloween right around the corner, make sure to hide your stash from your dog(s). 95% of dogs eating chocolate are found in smaller dogs but let's be honest all and every dog likes to eat anything and everything in their possible reach.

Threat to pets
It’s the dose that makes the poison! Pets that ingest a few M&Ms or 1-2 bites of a chocolate chip cookie are unlikely to develop chocolate poisoning.

• For milk chocolate, any ingestion of more than 0.5 ounces per pound of body weight may put dogs at risk for chocolate poisoning.
• Ingestions of more than 0.13 ounces per pound of dark or semi-sweet chocolate may cause poisoning.
• Almost all ingestions of baker’s chocolate can result in poisoning and are considered emergencies.
• Very young, geriatric and animals with underlying disease must be treated more conservatively as they are more at risk for poisoning than healthy adult animals.
• Due to the large amount of fat in chocolate, some pets may develop pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas) after eating chocolate or baked goods containing chocolate (see fatty foods).

Where I found the "Threat to pets": petpoisonhelpline.com

Things that show signs of your dog having chocolate poisoning:

1. Vomiting
2. Diarrhea
3. Agitation
4. tachycardia (Increase of heart rate)
5. Abnormal Heart Rhythm
6. Tremors
7. Seizures
8 Collapsing

Treatment for chocolate poisoning:

1. Make your dog vomit
2. Give multiple doses of activated charcoal to your dog to decontaminate
3. Aggressive IV fluids to help with excretion
4. Use sedatives (if necessary)
5. Heart medicines if heart rate is increasing
6. Anti-convulsants for seizures
7. antacids for diarrhea (Pepcid)
8. Keep the bladder empty (Take frequent walks)

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Good thing to know