Information on working terriers, dogs, natural history, hunting, and the environment, with occasional political commentary as I see fit. This web log is associated with the Terrierman.com web site.
Thursday, February 19, 2015
First Reader, First Lesson
The dog dies in the end. From chocolate. Let that be a lesson kid.
Our first little JRT was a bitch named Sassy-AKA "The Pig". She ate a whole box of See's Candies one Christmas because she was a bad little dog and like a cat and easily jumped up on tables and counters to get food. She ran around the house chasing imaginary cats for around four hours but other than that no ill effects. She was the definition of hearty and daughty and tough... we didn't even know chocolate was poisonous!
You are 100% right that chocolate is waaaaay overstated as a toxin for dogs. Foper starters, most sweet chocolate (the only stuff we buy and have lying about) has very little chocolate in it. The chocolate is simply not that toxic.
NOW, if a small dog ate a lot of BAKERS chocolate (and I doubt they ever would), then things might go pear shaped. But who has baker's chocolate lying about on a coffee table? No one!
The truth is that vets have a made a LOT of money circulating fear-mongering bits about chocolate. Pookie eats a quater of a bag of kisses, and that then generates a $300 or better vet bill for no reason.
If your dog eats chocolate, it will probably be fine, but just to make sure, have someone hold the dog while you squirt two or three big loads of hydrogen peroxide down the dog's throat (keep it out of the eyes!). That's a all a vet dose anyway -- make the dog throw up. Hydrogen peroxide works well at that. Load with a big syringe (or turkey baster) and jet it down and wait a minute or two. Oh right.... might want to put the dog in the bathtub. Makes "clean up on aisle three" a little easier! :)
Ditto for avocado- we have an avocado tree and one of my dogs eats the branches which if you believe some internet lore is toxic. He's fine and from what I've gathered the toxicity of avocado is in real life almost nil. I'm glad I didn't know at the time that chocolate was even possible poisonous- as it was she just raced around like a little methhead- we thought it was the sugar...
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3 comments:
Our first little JRT was a bitch named Sassy-AKA "The Pig". She ate a whole box of See's Candies one Christmas because she was a bad little dog and like a cat and easily jumped up on tables and counters to get food. She ran around the house chasing imaginary cats for around four hours but other than that no ill effects. She was the definition of hearty and daughty and tough... we didn't even know chocolate was poisonous!
You are 100% right that chocolate is waaaaay overstated as a toxin for dogs. Foper starters, most sweet chocolate (the only stuff we buy and have lying about) has very little chocolate in it. The chocolate is simply not that toxic.
NOW, if a small dog ate a lot of BAKERS chocolate (and I doubt they ever would), then things might go pear shaped. But who has baker's chocolate lying about on a coffee table? No one!
The truth is that vets have a made a LOT of money circulating fear-mongering bits about chocolate. Pookie eats a quater of a bag of kisses, and that then generates a $300 or better vet bill for no reason.
If your dog eats chocolate, it will probably be fine, but just to make sure, have someone hold the dog while you squirt two or three big loads of hydrogen peroxide down the dog's throat (keep it out of the eyes!). That's a all a vet dose anyway -- make the dog throw up. Hydrogen peroxide works well at that. Load with a big syringe (or turkey baster) and jet it down and wait a minute or two. Oh right.... might want to put the dog in the bathtub. Makes "clean up on aisle three" a little easier! :)
Ditto for avocado- we have an avocado tree and one of my dogs eats the branches which if you believe some internet lore is toxic. He's fine and from what I've gathered the toxicity of avocado is in real life almost nil. I'm glad I didn't know at the time that chocolate was even possible poisonous- as it was she just raced around like a little methhead- we thought it was the sugar...
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