To ask all dog owners to read this?

[toomuch2young]

Especially in light of the awful morrisons advert (showing dog being given xmas pud) that is currently being shown can I please ask all do owners to be aware that the following festive food stuffs are highly poisonous / dangerous to dogs:

• raisins (Christmas cake, pudding, mince pies etc) very large dogs have died from v small amount of raisins.
• grapes
• Macedemia nuts
• onions
• turkey is to rich for a lot of doggy tums
• cooked bones
• chocolate - please don't put wrapped selection boxes under the tree! Dark choc, cocoa powder and cooking choc are the worst.
• caffeine
• alcohol
• sweets and mints - xylitol is very dangerous to dogs
• potato peelings
• garlic
• corn on the cob

This is not an exhaustive list of course and am sure many dog owners are already aware but if this saves one doggy life or even an expensive vet bill then it's more than worth a 2 minute read.

Oh, and add batteries to the list

Our dog managed to eat a santa soft toy with a battery in it. But survived.

Our little terrier managed to get into a box of luxury belgian chocolate truffles and scoff the lot. I was so upset because they were mine I thought she was going to die. We paid for emergency vet appointment and everything but they said there is not much which can be done apart from watching her. Thankfully after a couple of days of worry and stress she seemed ok. Then my husband found all the stolen truffles stuffed down the back of the sofa where she was saving them for later.

My dog has a wheat allergy, and the amount of well meaning people, that have givenhim bits of bread, biscuit, and sausage (contains rusk often) is astonishing, when I go NOOOOOO! They say, oh it's only a bit! yes, a bit that will leave him flapping his ears in discomfort until they bleed you knob!!

Thanks for the list though!

YY to no macadamias

My brother gave some to his dog and it wasn't pretty.

Arf at Nora's hound stashing the contraband

Raisins? Really?

Yes. Haven't read whole thread so apologies if someone else has said this - Most raisins and grapes are absolutely fine. The problem is that some of them have some sort of mould which produces something highly toxic to dog. So if you let your dog eat them you're playing Russian Roulette.

The RSPB marks birdfood which contains raisins as dog-unfriendly, good responsible animal lovers that they are.

It is a worry having a furry-dustbin type of dog, you have to be so careful to keep things out of reach, not to mention what they pick up in the street and park (discarded chicken bones are the biggest problem around here).

It's incredible to me that some people's dogs don't scavenge absolutely anything and everything vaguely resembling edible. Apparently some dogs actually leave food uneaten in their bowls which would be utterly unthinkable in this house .

Yes it's labs, goldies and rotts that seem to be the worst offenders IME.

Try owning a scent hound. You have to hide everything. I look at those would-be drugs smugglers on customs programmes and think, 'Huh, amateurs'.

I think my dog is okay with chocolate though. He stole most of a birthday cake and was fine

There isn't that much cocoa in most chocolate cakes. My dog (not a big one) ate quarter of a milk chocolate orange and was fine - rang the vet and we worked out the dosage, it was well under. Its high cocoa chocolate which is the real problem (or massive amounts of milk chocolate/cake).

Thanks for the list Op, I've put it on my threads I'm watching list, I hadn't a clue about a lot of these things.
My dog loves chocolate and nicked ds's advent calendar one year, he went utterly hyper.
He'll get turkey for his Christmas dinner though.

Thanks for the list, I actually already knew most of them but it was a good reminder!
I have one of those strange dogs who has food left in her bowl! Never come accross it before. i tried and tried to get her to eat 2 good meals a day but its just not how she does it. Little and often for her. My 2 labs are a whole different kettle of fish!!! They eat anything and everything including my little dogs poo, yuck!

ephiny I have a lab who wolfs his food in about 7 seconds flat, burps loudly, then looks round with big eyes to say "I'm hungry when's the next lot coming?"

I too was astonished when I went to visit a friend with an Alsatian who used to wander over to the bowl, sniff casually, maybe have a couple of mouthfuls, wander off and come back a couple of hours later for a bit more ..... That would NEVER happen with my furry belly on legs!!

Ive been giving Bumble garlic pills and i have just rung the vet. They say that the toxicity levels can rise and that isnt good so i am going to stop giving them and suggest my friend stops too!

good thread OP well done for pointing people in the right direction as afar as feeding petd go.well done

Ha, well I would just like to point out that I don't feed my dogs raisins out of habit - it was just the one time someone DH most likely left the bag on the sofa and the pups snaffled them.

Oddly enough, none of our labs have ever eaten their food when it's put down. They either save half of it for later or, in the case of our old one, look at it, look at us, back to the food, back to us, give us a disgusted snort of derision, and go and lie in the hall. He ate it eventually, but I think he was holding out for something off OUR plates.

Could you add paracetamol to the list.

Owners seem to think christmas out of hours will cost more than at any other time of the year, and decide to give the pet a bit of paracetamol to tied it over till boxing day.

I've never known vets to charge differently for christmas OOH but Paracetamol should never be given, ever.

Oh and to everyone please be careful with car antifreeze. If you spill it, its sweet so something will ingest it. It kills, I spent last years Christmas with two suspected ingested antifreeze cats. Both had died by new years.

Last year my terrier age through the children's stockings that were under their beds to steal loads of chocolate coins. And puked all over the their beds later

What sort of idiot would give their dog paracetamol ?
Anyone that stupid does not deserve a pet.

There was a case recently with a cat - owner meant well, didn't realise that other animals can't metabolise paracetamol. I would imagine lots of people don't know about such differences.

My mother gave her dog ibuprofen, she got a bollocking off the vet and told that she was bloody lucky not to have killed the dog!

My dog gets a quarter of an aspirin a day when his knee hurts him. The vet said aspirin is safe for dogs providing you know the right dose, which is dependent on weight. My terrier is the size of a big moggy so only needs a tiny amount.

Many of these whilst harmful in large quantities are usually fine in small amounts - moderation is generally the key.

Garlic whilst toxic in large quantities actually serves as a good natural de-wormer and flea repellent in moderation and in my experience is quite widely used, I use it myself.

Cooked bones are harmful as they are brittle and can easily splinter and perforate the intestines.

Are dried cranberries ok? One of my hounds stole quite a few today.

Wishing everyone's doggies a Happy and safe Christmas