05/31/2016
THE #1 CAUSE OF DEATH IN PETS BY A POISONOUS FOOD.
Yes, it's chocolate! And pets love it, especially dogs, who can be indiscriminate gluttons. And people love to feed their dogs and cats what they most enjoy eating. But that's not the only way they acquire chocolate. The will steal it if it's available to be taken.
The signs of toxicity only take a few hours to appear. They include restlessness, a racing heart, vomiting and diarrhea. These signs can progress to depression, seizures, and coma, followed by death. Toxicity is dose dependent, meaning the more chocolate--given a certain size pet--the more toxic. Bakers chocolate has the greatest amount of the toxic culprits: theobromine and caffeine, so it's the most dangerous to ingest, with milk chocolate trailing as least toxic. This means that it only takes a small amount of the dark chocolate to hurt your pet, compared to milk chocolate. Please try to keep exposure of this most divine foodstuff to a minimum, if at all, especially around the holidays; that's when we see the most cases..
Related to chocolate, and also toxic: coffee and tea. Other, less obvious sources of this toxin include garden mulch made from cocoa bean shells, and stimulant drinks containing caffeine.
More on toxic foods to come.
