Hi everyone, bit of an emergency (or i may jsut be panicking as usual) my husband told me that at lunch today the dog ate half a stick of a twirl bar which is all chocolate. the bit he ate was probably about the size of a little finger. what should i do? (apart from panicking ;) ) will he be ok?

i know choc is poisonous to them but how much do they have to eat (he is a tiny pup, 4.5 k at the mo, 5 months old)

thanks

i think he'll be ok - my 5 month old dally got into the front room on xmas eve, opened all the presents and ate a big box of All Gold :( She was fine - she looked a bit sickly but she was fine :) The dark chocolate is the worst. you could always just ring your vet to put your mind at rest

wow thanks for the quick response! to be honest we had a cav when we were kids and i distinctly remember giving her chocs (yes i know!) but we didn't know any better. but i've recently heard lots of mentions of choc being dangerous hence my panic. as my husband said the other day "it's hard having a little one!!" i thought wait til we have kids!

Chocolate toxicity

I would say he will probably be ok. Whilst it is not a good idea to give dogs chocolate many can eat some without any trouble, particularly the British milk chocolate which is not very 'pure'. I would just watch him for a while and if he shows no signs of illness then don't worry. Bitter chocolate, particularly the expensive foreign chocolates, are much more dangerous as they contain far more theobromine.

Joan
Take the rough with the smooth

I never give chocolate to my dogs (intentionally) as I know it can be harmful. However a few weeks back my daughter had bought a large bar of wholenut which was left in the kitchen. (You know what's coming next don't you!!)
Yes, next morning I found an empty wrapper on the floor. I don't know which of them ate it, or reached it off the back of the worktop. Luckily they were fine, but it did worry me.
Lorna

i think its the dark chocolate thats a problem,

And I'm sure I heard somewhere that white chocolate is okay. White doesn't have the poisonous bit in it, and the darker the chocolate, the more toxic it is. Is that right? Not that I want to give Dylan choccies - he loves his doggie treats too much!

Sarah