Pet Advice
Chocolate Toxicity
Is it true? Will my pet die from eating one of my M&M's? The good news is, your dog wouldn’t die from eating one M&M, but if a little chihuahua munched through your whole bag of M &Ms, it might get very sick. This is because the toxicity is dose related, so a little dog doesn’t need to eat as much as a big dog to get poisoned. What is in chocolate to make it toxic Chocolate contains theobromine which is toxic to dogs when given in sufficient quantity. However it takes a fairly large amount of theobromine to cause a toxic reaction. Theobromine is a xanthine compound which is related to caffeine. Caffeine is also found in chocolate
How much chocolate can my dog eat? The toxic dose of theobromine is considered to be 100 – 200 mg/kg. But there have been some problems reported from eating 20mg/kg of theobromine. This lower dose means that a 20kg dog would have to eat about 250 g of milk chocolate to have a problem. But different chocolate contains different amounts of theobromine [list] Milk chocolate contains about 50mg of theobromine per 30g chocolate Cooking chocolate contains 400mg of theobromine per 30g chocolate. [/list] The darker the chocolate, the more toxic it is. Cocoa powder is very toxic. The only case we know of a dog dying from chocolate poisoning was a labrador that ate a whole box of cocoa. What are the signs of toxicity? [list] shaking, muscle tremors, nervousness, seizures vomiting and diarrhoea excessive thirst and urinating a lot increased heart rate [/list] Signs generally appear within 12 hours of the chocolate feast What is the treatment? There is no specific antidote to theobromine but supportive therapy including fluids, emetics and medication to control seizures or heart abnormalities.