Mum gave my dog dark chocolate

[mrsg2019]

I'm trying to see if you guys think if
IABU or not. My mum has 'adopted' my dog around 5 years ago due to a change of circumstances which she actively encouraged at the time. I visit him often, pay his vet insurance and any bills. He lives there and is happy. Today, my mum (after several glasses of wine) have him a full dark chocolate magnum. My dog is around 6kg and is not young for his breed. When I asked if she'd given him chocolate, she nervously said yes. I pointed out that chocolate is poisonous to dogs and she seemed genuinely oblivious. I started to google and after reading, I thought I should maybe call a vet. When I started to dial the vet, my mum started going crazy at me, 'are you seriously calling a vet? Look at him, he's fine'. We had a huge argument afterwards as she was of the opinion 'he's my dog I know how he will be, you've not looked after him for 5 years' mine was just 'have you seriously just purposely fed a dog dark chocolate?'. Am I unreasonable for arguing back with her?

Did you take him to the vet? You really should

NU at all its poison and won’t always show signs straight away so I hope you took him to a vet. Would you consider having him live with you again? As you don’t know if this happens regularly or will happen again I’d find it hard to trust her with my dog again

Please take him to the vet. You are totally not being unreasonable

You must contact the vet now, dark chocolate is particularly lethal especially in small dogs. Your vet will be able to tell you over the phone if the amount the dog has consumed will be dangerous. Phone then now.

Your mum is an idiot.

No - she's keeping an eye on him. Apparently she's give it him before and he's been fine. She wouldn't let me call the vet - a huge argument ensued about how I'm being dramatic essentially. I did a bit of searching and I think because the ratio of chocolate is quite small on a magnum, he's under the threshold for his weight for it to be life threatening. Hopefully. What a nightmare!

Make sure she also never gives your dog grapes/sultanas/raisins.

Call the vet anyway - just ask the question. Don't rely on the internet.

Sorry but your mother clearly does not love your dog, if she did she would hold her hands up, be horrified at her mistake and would have been on the phone to the vet herself, she clearly does not give a shit about the health of your dog, and also do you always do as your mother tells you? You have a responsibility here as well, you know your dog has digested something that could be very harmful and yet you don’t call the vet yourself.

Toxic dose for dark chocolate for a dog is about 3g/kg so if he's 6kg, 18g would be enough to cause problems. Symptoms include excitability/hyperactivity, increased temperature, shaking/shivering/tremors and seizures. They obviously don't start immediately as the dog needs to digest the chocolate first so the "he seems fine" argument is a bit redundant a short time after.

You'll get lots of people telling you their 2kg dog ate 20kg chocolate and was fine, but it is a fairly predicable toxin (you can calculate whether it's likely to be a problem depending on cocoa content) and I've seen dogs die from chocolate toxicity in more than one occasion.

It's proper bakers chocolate with a high percentage you need to worry about. I mean giving a dog chocolate isn't a great idea, but they will be fine

The darker the chocolate, the more likely a negative outcome.

I don't like to be one of the MN 999'ers but you really should press upon her that it is very important to let a vet know the dog has ingested chocolate. Even a small amount can be toxic, as you know.

Can you print off a list of foods never to give dogs for your mum's info? Like a PP has said, grapes, raisins etc. She may not know.

It’s any chocolate shesaid don’t post misinformation.

Hi all - thanks for the advise. I'm going to call the out of hours team now. It's been 5 hours and my sister said he's fine - I'm hoping he's going to be ok but I'd never forgive myself if I didn't call and... urgh. Was the push I needed - thanks

@BettyBooJustDoinTheDoo ok 🙄

As above, chocolate is a dog poison, it's dependent on the amount & his weight.

My dog ate an onion once & off to the vets we went as I calculated it was quite near the lethal dose. Vet agreed!

I'm sorry but I think YABU to give the dog to your mum but still call it your dog. It's been 5 years, it's not as if it was a temporary arrangement. I think if your mum has the dog as a long term, permanent arrangement, she has to be responsible for the insurance, vet bills and decisions about the dog's care. If she wasn't willing to take on the financial commitment and you didn't/don't trust her to look after it properly, you shouldn't have given her the dog in the first place.

Hope the dog is ok.

Glad you called the vet, I hope he'll be ok. Is there anyway you could have the dog back as your mum clearly can't be trusted to take care of him properly? As she's admitted this isn't the first time she's done it I would worry the dog has underlying health problems/organ damage. Presumably she knows better than to feed a baby a big mac and milkshake, so why would a similarly small mammal be better equipped to metabolise such a large amount of dairy, fat and sugar.

I'm confused - the dog lives with her full-time for 5 years, but you still pay all of the bills for him? I'd just end this right now. It doesn't work. Either take the dog home with you or tell her that she is now financially responsible.

You're not being unreasonable. Hopefully he pukes it all over her carpets before it makes him ill on other ways.

My mother in law used to brag aabout feeding her pets choclate. She didnt like one and so never treated that one aith chocolate. Stupid cow still doesnt realise why the hated one is (proably) still alive.

Ps when she moved house she dumped the poor thing in a field and just left.
It wasnt cruel though because she never liked that one anyway. (She did a similar thing to her son when he met me ;-))

It's fine for her to be possibly poisoning the dog as it would be you paying for it to be treated by the vet. No skin off her nose.