Meanwhile, your vet is more concerned that you admit to feeding him raisins.
Lets take a look at what the dangers really are.
Heres the lowdown on what we know about some of the foods that are most dangerous to dogs.
The dangerous parts of chocolate are the caffeine and a related chemical,theobromine.
Theyre both in a chemical family calledmethylxanthines.
How much is a problem?It depends on the pop in of chocolate.
Heart problems occur with about 40 milligrams, seizures at 60 mg, and death at 100-200 mg/kg.
Thiscalculator from Veterinaryclinic.comcan help you figure out whether your dog ate enough to require medical attention.
The dog might vomit soon after eating the raisins, but the kidney damage takes time to occur.
Symptoms may take 2-3 days to show up.
How much is a problem?This is the tricky part.
Until this mystery is solved, many vets consider any amount of raisin ingestion to be an emergency.
Sugarless Gum
Whats the danger?Its not the gum thats the issue hereits the sweetener.
Xylitol is asugar alcoholused as a low calorie sweetener in gum and some low-calorie foods like sugar-free pudding.
Symptoms include weakness, difficulty walking, seizures, and coma.
How much is a problem?Different products have different amounts of xylitol.
Heres the hotlinesfact sheet on xylitol.
Bottom line, keep anything with xylitol or unspecified sugar alcoholsaway from your pet.
More seriously, the sulfur-containing chemicals in these foods can destroy red blood cells, leading toanemia.
In rare cases this can be deadly.
This is equivalent to a 30-pound dog eating a whole, large onion.
The smallest dose that has caused symptoms was0.7 grams of nuts per kilogram of body weight.
Thats just three nuts for a 20-pound dog.
Let a vet decide, because sometimes these measurescan do more harm than good.
But if your pet seems to be acting more or less normally, take a moment to seek advice.
Acting quickly can stash your pets life, or at least reduce your vet bills.
While youre at it, check for medications, alcohol, and household chemicals, too.
Illustration by Sam Woolley.
Raisins fromDavid Ross Harris.
Gum fromThe Impulsive Buy.
Macadamia nuts fromJessica FM.
