Dogs and sultanas - help please!

[WonderIfThingsWillChange]

Hi, I've just walked into the kitchen to discover my dog (who eats anything in sight) has spotted a cake (bara brith) which had sultanas in and he's eaten it. There was only 1 slice left....how many sultanas will be too many? Should I just keep an eye on him or take straight to vets? I stupidly thought he would be happy enough with his kong for 10 minutes and wouldn't try raiding anywhere else

[ClaimedByMe]

I think it has a lot do with the size of the dog and the amount of sultanas consumed, a large dog and small amount should be ok but you should phone the vet for advice

[GobblersKnob]

I would phone the vet for advice, I had to do that at Christmas when one of mine stole a mine pie. The vet said if he were hers she wouldn't give it a second thought, so we just kept an eye on him.

Like claimed said though it is very dependent on dogs weight and amount consumed, and then some dogs are just far most sensitive than others.

Years ago before I knew better I used to use chocolate covered rasins as a training treat!

[SirVixofVixHall]

Even three can be too much. My pup has had to go to the emergency vet twice because of raisins, each time she was made to vomit and then they roughly estimated how many were in the debris! My old dog ate raisins and grapes a lot, and was absolutely fine (MIL use to give him large slices of bara brith...in the days before anyone knew there was a problem with grapes) but apparently some dogs are ok and some not. I wonder if there is a breed disposition actually. But anyway, I would call the vet and ask for advice. Is your dog large or small?

[WonderIfThingsWillChange]

He's a large cross breed dog, at least 35kg. Vet said to keep an eye on him, seems his usual self so far!

[WonderIfThingsWillChange]

Thank you for your responses

[Aked]

Just in case others are reading the post in future for advice, there is no weight:raisin/sultana ratio, not like chocolate. As SirVix said some dogs can eat a tonne with no ill effect. Others can eat just a few and go into renal failure. There is no set amount that is dangerous unfortunately.

Hope your dog is ok OP.

[WonderIfThingsWillChange]

Thanks Aked. Thankfully he has been absolutely fine, he was burping lots last night (he normally has one good burp after a meal!) seems fine this morning, eating and drinking ok and no problems going to toilet. Padlock on my cake from now on

[ElmaTheElephant]

Even if you were not aware that you shouldn't allow a dog to eat grapes and raisins, why on earth would anyone regularly feed their dog large slices of bara brith, or any cake or bread for that matter?

[SirVixofVixHall]

I didn't regularly feed my dog bara brith, that isn't what I said. He had a healthy doggie diet. But when we visited the in-laws MIL had often baked and she would give a slice to VixDog. This was probably twice a year, so not a part of his normal day. He did however steal a lot of grapes, from the fruit bowl, from people's bags, he would eat them if he could get hold of them. He also stole the odd hot cross bun. I didn't think anything of it, as at the time there was no information that grapes could be a danger to a dog.

[GobblersKnob]

Aked that's what I always thought, but when I phoned the vet at Christmas, she wanted to know my dogs weight and the likely amount consumed and then consulted something, on the basis of that she said it was exceedingly unlikely to pose a problem, but did point out that some dogs are very sensitive and just one or two could pose a risk, she also said this is vanishingly rare.

She said on of the vets Jack Russells had eaten half a Christmas cake in the run up to Christmas, but had suffered no ill effects But then your average Jack Russell does have an pretty iron constitution

And my dogs although for most of the year are carefully fed on gluten and grain free Millie's I still make them a carrot cake every birthday, no they don't need it, and it's probably not enormously good for them and yes, I am massively anthropomorphising them by baking them birthday cakes, but they love it and they and I will only live once. And yes, they would get similar pleasure from a raw meaty species appropriate bone, and they get those too, but not on birthdays because they are hard to ice and the candles won't stay on.....

[SirVixofVixHall]

I have always had fox terriers, (both as mentioned above fine with raisins) have an Irish terrier now, and a family JRT also ate raisins with no ill effects. I know that some sight hounds metabolise drugs differently to other breeds, so as I mentioned earlier I wonder if this is a breed issue, would be interesting to know if any research has been done. Perhaps there is a genetic predisposition to the kidney damage. As this stand all dog owners have to take the better safe than sorry approach as I do, and get a dog to a vet if they eat any. I did feel very sorry for my IT puppy, having to take the emetics, but even though she had only managed to steal two biscuits with raisins in it wasn't worth the risk. We had another incident where she stole chocolate cake, in that instance the out of hours vet called the poisons people and they estimated the dose going by her weight and the type and quantity of cake, they said she would be fine, as she was. Raisins are impossible to judge in that way because of the individual differences in reactions, going by what my vet said anyway.