What to Do if Your Dog Eats Chocolate

We all know that dogs love to eat, and some dogs will eat just about anything. One thing that all dogs seem to love is chocolate. There is something about the sweet stuff that not only humans find to be delicious, but dogs do too. While chocolate (or too much of it), isn’t all that good for humans, it definitely is not good for dogs, especially certain types of chocolate. If your dog were to get into your chocolate and eat it, would you know if it was harmful or what to do if you think he ate too much. It’s always a good idea to know what to do, so here’s what to do if your dog eats chocolate.

What is in chocolate that makes it bad for dogs

A chemical known as theobromine is in chocolate which happens to be a cousin to caffeine. There is more of this chemical in dark chocolate than in milk chocolate, which means that baker’s chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, cocoa powder, and your gourmet dark chocolates are all higher in theobromine than candy milk chocolates, and are ultimately more dangerous for your dog. White chocolate has a very small amount of this chemical in it, and it showed to have no affect on pets in way of poisoning.

What to do if your dog eats chocolate

Depending on the size of your dog, the type of chocolate your dog ate and how much, your dog may need to be treated. If you suspect your dog had too much chocolate, you will want to induce vomiting in your dog and give him a dose of activated charcoal to help decontaminate your dog’s blood. You should keep some of this on-hand in case you ever need to decontaminate your dog and absorb what’s in your dog’s system. Your dog may need a round of aggressive IV fluid treatments to help with the elimination of the chemical and fluid intake from the IV’s once he’s been given them. If your dog is taken to a veterinarian hospital, your dog may be feeling anxious and may be given sedatives to help relax him. His heart rate and blood pressure will be monitored as well as he will be monitored for seizures, which can happen if a dog has too much of the chemical in his system. Because theobromine gets reabsorbed by crossing over the bladder, which means that your dog may need to have a catheter placed, or if able to, he may need to go on frequent walks to help keep your dog’s bladder empty.

How will your dog do after ingestion of chocolate and treatment

How your dog does after ingesting too much chocolate will depend on a few different things. One important factor is the amount of chocolate your dog had. If your dog didn’t ingest very much, he should do just fine after treatment. If your dog had a moderate amount and was successfully treated, most dogs do just fine. If your dog had enough that caused a significant amount of poisoning, such as vomiting, diarrhea, and seizures, your dog may not do so well. Age can also play a role in how well your dog tolerates the treatment and can recover from it.

Halloween is one of the most deadliest holidays for pets due to all the chocolate in the home. It’s important to keep all your chocolate put dup and out of reach of pets.

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