It is that time of year when there are a lot of foods in the kitchen and dining room which are tasty to humans and toxic to dogs. The infographic prepared by me highlights 5 foods that are in this category. Domestic dogs eat instinctively and their instincts tell them to gorge on food as in the wild they would be unsure when the next meal would be available. Dogs love their food as we all know and can eat gross things. The treats available at Christmas must look very attractive to them. Their instinct lets them down as they are unaware that chocolate is toxic. Perhaps this is because they are yet to evolve as domestic dogs to the point where they’ve learned enough about human food to protect themselves from poisoning.
Although dogs have been domesticated for around 20,000 years it is believed. Why haven’t they learned about toxic human food by now? 😒
Chocolate ingestion in dogs – a study
The study’s objectives was to describe the clinical features and outcome of dogs after they ate some chocolate. They studied 156 cases of domestic dogs chocolate poisoning. They calculated the concentration of the theobromine from the type of chocolate that they ate and the amount eaten.
Interestingly, 112 dogs had no clinical signs of chocolate poisoning. I take that to mean that they weren’t poisoned! This means that about 70% of dogs do not find chocolate toxic. I think that point is one which is worth noting. That does not mean that dog owners should be careless with chocolate because their dog might be one of the remaining 30%!
44 dogs showed symptoms of chocolate intoxication. Of these 44 dogs, 28 ingested dark and bitter chocolate. The symptoms and the number of dogs suffering from these symptoms are listed below:
- Agitation (33)
- Tremor (22)
- Vomiting (21)
- Panting (11)
- Polyuria/Polydipsia (Seven)
- Diarrhoea (two).
The study found that common clinical findings were sinus tachycardia in 28 of the dogs, tachypnea/panting in 14 dogs, hyperthermia in 10 dogs and dehydration in seven.
In 34 of the 44 dogs, clinical pathological findings consisted of:
- Hyperlactataemia (23)
- Hypokalaemia (16)
- Mild hyperglycaemia (16)
- Mild alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) elevation (14).
Important factors as to the effect that chocolate has on dogs are the type and amount of chocolate ingested.
In general terms, cardiovascular, neurological and gastrointestinal signs where the most common.
There was a mortality rate of less than 3% in this study. And once the dogs had been decontaminated and their symptoms treated, they were fine.
Some more pages on dog health:
