Dogs and chocolate

[wizzler]

Help.. Rafa ,our 11month old toy poodle puppy has snaffled ten Lindt d'or chocolates. Are there any practical steps I can take.(apart from finding the mop and bucket) should I take him to the vet?

[Whippoorwhill]

I'd phone your vet and ask. The milkier the chocolate, the less the risk but with something as small as a toy poodle it wouldn't need much to make him very poorly.

[wizzler]

Thanks Whippoorwill. I have taken him to the vet and they are making him sick. They also made me feel quite poorly as total cost will be over £120.

Lindt d'or are my favourites too !

[shoutymcshoutsmum]

bad luck wizzler. My pup wasmade to vomit by the vet after eating a bag of choc chip brioche. The evt said they had to restrain him from eating it again!

[Whippoorwhill]

Ow, vets are damn expensive. Adds insult to the injury of losing your chocolates. :)

Glad he's getting treatment though. He's going to feel awful for a while after the vomiting stuff. My dearly departed Teazle ate an entire pot of really good cocoa powder. Her vomit was spectacular and she was a sad dog for quite a while afterwards. Never learned her lesson though, she'd still try and sneak the pot when anyone was baking.

[wizzler]

Rafa seems absolutely fine... which is making Dh even crosser.. must train him to look contrite in the future.

[wizzler]

dog not DH.. OBV!

[BrianCoxIsAChristmasPud]

he is looking fine because you took him to the vets and they made him better.

He is far too small a breed to take on board large quantities of choc - which is exactly what 10 of those delights are.

Poor boy, poor you.

Well done for taking him to the vets though, some will tell you stories of how much chocolate their dogs have snaffled over the years and are absolutley fine (I could tell you such tales about my mutt) but it isn't worth the risk in case they do have a bad reaction, you don't act and then there's no dog at the end of it.

I hope he feels better soon and I hope your DH buys you some more chocolate (which will be kept on the highest surface) to ease your shock

[Lonecatwithkitten]

Most of the cost is the Apo-go to make them vomit. It used to come in 1ml vials, but 18 months ago the manufacturer discontinued these and there are now only the 5ml single use vials. We only use less than 0.1ml for most dogs. There is a group of vets lobbying the drug company to produce a 0.5ml vial so we don't have to charge you so much. It is a really expensive drug!

[MothershipG]

Well done for taking prompt action, I know some one who lost a mini Poodle after it ate just one small bar of Galaxy. Some dogs are just really sensitive and there is no telling which.

[TheCortanaThatStoleChristmas]

My lovely doggie can open zips apparently. Found this out when he ate a family size bar of chocolate from my handbag. £100 later all chocolate gets put in high cupboards.

Good stuff on the fast action though. Glad Rafa is ok if not contrite.

[yesbutnobut]

It's primarily dark chocolate which is poisonous to dogs. When my 6 month old cavalier pup ate a large bar of galaxy I did a google search (it was out of office hours for the vet) and found a thread on mumsnet (of course!) - it was actually entitled 'My dog just ate a bar of galaxy' - and the thread contained a very useful link to a site where you could insert your dog's weight and the amount of chocolate eaten (and, importantly, whether white, milk or plain) and it told you whether to go to the vet or not. I'm pleased your poodle is better, OP.

[HoHoBrandyButter]

Glad your dog is okay now. The vet told me the point at which they need to induce vomiting is 1g of dark chocolate per kg of dog, and 9g of milk chocolate. Quite scary really!

[wizzler]

Thanks everyone... the Vets weighed Rafa, and weighted the chocolates and it was all very scientific.
They also said he was the fourth dog this week they had seen with the same issue
I am so glad I took him... he is quite a mischief but he is our mischief and I couldn't bear if anything happened to him!

[ChinUpChestOut]

I didn't know there was a formula! My little American beagle found a nice new box of white, milk and dark chocolates that I had bought as a hostess gift, but left at home. He greeted our return home with remarkable enthusiasm - bouncing off the walls, jumping up and down on the sofas, back to the walls, armchair, walls, sofa, walls, armchair......

He had eaten all the white chocolates. He ate half the milk chocolates and hid half in the sofas (to be found later by us). He took each dark chocolate in his mouth and then clearly had spat each one out, in disgust, as each one had beagle teeth marks on it.

He was right as rain. The vet, who knows him well (funny, that), just laughed. She knew he'd come to no harm as he'd "been sensible and avoided the pure chocolate". Right. Sensible. He's a beagle. He doesn't know sensible.

[yesbutnobut]

Oh yes, now I remember ChinUp, my puppy was completely hyper for about 12 hours after eating the galaxy (how can I have forgotten?).