out walking with Freya the other day, doing a bit of work with her in in the local fields, using dried food as a treat (not getting into the thing about treat training) odd little man walks over to start a conversation about her.

He went on about having a dog, and feeding it chocolate. According to him, the dog went "funny" had to be rushed to the vets and then died.

Can some please tell me if this was just some very weird person i was unfortunate to meet, or can a dog really be killed by eating chocolate?

thanks
jay

Hi Jay,

Yes dogs can be killed by human chocolate. There's a chemical in it - can't remember the name - but it acts like amphetamines do in humans and dogs can't cope with it.

Some dogs can eat a bar of chocolate every day throughout their lives without any problems but with other dogs one small bar of chocolate is too much for them. It's for this reason that vets recommend that no human chocolate is given to dogs.

Dark chocolate is the worst and cocoa powder is lethal :(

Fiona
x x x

cheers for that, the bloke was really strange, and its something I've never thought about,

thanks for that

jay

Hi Jay

The chemical in chocolate Fiona can't remember is theobromine and can indeed be fatal to dogs:(. Dog choc drops have this removed so they are safe. Dogs have also been poisoned by the theobromine found in cocoa bark chippings in garden borders so gardeners with dogs need to be aware of the danger.
Sounds like your 'wierdo' did you a favour in raising your awareness :)

Another thing you should be aware of is that grapes and raisins are also poisonous to dogs, 500g of raisins killed a dog belonging to somebody I knew only recently.

HTH

Fran

Am I right in thinking that walnuts too can cause problems for a dog? If so, that is of some concern since even the local squirrel population is unable to cope with the amount of walnuts produced by my tree each year. My SBT rescue dog is a recent arrival so the problem would arise only next year.

The only problem with walnuts I am aware of, is that if a dog swallows one whole it is the ideal size to block the bowel.

Yes - walnuts can also cause problems 'Nuts:
Walnuts are poisonous to dogs and should be avoided. In particular, there is a type of fungus common to walnuts (especially wet deadfall walnuts) that will cause severe episodes of seizuring. Many nuts are not good for dogs in general, their high phosphorous content is said to possibly lead to bladder stones.'
http://www.virtualvet.com/petowners/poisonfacts.htm#nuts

Thanks for the link Digger
Can't demolish the walnut tree - and certainly don't want to rehome Ben.
And don't want to move either.
Let's hope Ben will desist from partaking . . .

Onions too are poisonous to dogs.............Apparently the toxin can build up if fed regularly. I was amazed about raisins and grapes! My last dog loved grapes! It's so good to learn of these dangers eh? Thanks

ziggy

Not long after getting our resecue dog a large parcel arrived at home containing Christmas presents. As we were all rushing out to work/school we left it in the kitchen. When I came home at lunch time I found our usually non-destructive dog sitting in the middle of brown wrapping paper, bubble pack, Xmas wrapping paper and the remains of two very large boxes of chocolates (one Belgian , the other chocolate ginger). Needless to say he was rushed straight to the vets who calculated that as he only weighs 18kg, he may have had enough to kill him. He had a stomach pump out and was absolutely fine. We had always been aware of the problem with chocolate, but now never leave suspicious packages around :)

Daisy

Talking about dogs demolishing whole packets of food, my black Lab decided to unwrap a packet of butter and consume the whole block of greasy butter inside! Yuck!

I also remember my Mum's Cavalier KC and when he was a puppy he demolished a small tub of Tropical Fish Flake food!

Both dogs were fine and still alive today.