How much chocolate is dangerous?

[Buddy'smyboy]

My sister's friend from down the road left a Christmas card and four chocolate Hershey kisses on the railing next to our front door while we were in town about a week ago and apparently Buddy ate the chocolate kisses because they weren't there when we got home but we didn't notice anything different in him at all so I was wondering how much chocolate it takes relative to body mass to be lethal or to show side effects if any. I'm thinking it takes more than four chocolate kisses in Buddy's case since he's still alive, but it did make me wonder. If it helps, Buddy is 96 pounds, so I think it just might have been a case of not enough chocolate to effect him. Any thoughts?

[Maz]

I Googled this topic and here's one piece of info I found:
Dog people love chocolates and because dogs are well loved pets, the chocolate bar or the Black Forest cake the dog owner is eating will be shared with the pet. Apparently, a dog will not show signs of poisoning if only a small amount of these kinds of chocolates are consumed. Chocolate is dose dependent meaning that a dog has to ingest about 100 to 150 milligrams per kilogram of dog body weight before the toxicity level can be reached. Different types of chocolates have different toxicity levels. The toxicity level is much lower in white chocolates because this type of chocolate contains very little theobromine. About 200 ounces of white chocolates must be consumed before signs of chocolate poisoning will be seen. Milk chocolates and semi-sweet chocolates have higher theobromine content. The baking chocolate is considered to be the most dangerous among all types of chocolates. Although a dog owner may not give the dog baking chocolate it is still possible for the dog to ingest substantial amount because the dog’s nose would find where the chocolates are kept and would have an eating spree. If this happens, the dog must be taken to the vet’s at once.

[Maz]

A link to things dogs should avoid eating:

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm ... 9&aid=1030

[Mattie]

I nearly lost my Greyhound after he managed to get a box of chocolates off a shelf 7ft off the floor, with it being so high up I didn't realise he had eaten them until the following day when he started to act odd after his breakfast. I rushed him to the vets who kept him in, when I got home which was only 15 minutes away, the phone was ringing, the vet wanted permission to open him up which I gave of course.

The vet took out a carrier bag full of chocolates, about half still in their wrappers, cardboard box they were in, Christmas wrapping paper round the chocolates and Merlin's tea, supper and breakfast. He not only had chocolate poisoning but also bloat because of what he had in his stomach. Merlin stopped breathing on the operating table and a nurse had to breath for him so they didn't stitch his stomach to the chest wall but closed him up as soon as they could.

Merlin did make a full recovery, he was in intensive care for 4 nights because of the chocolate poisoning and I nearly lost him several times, it was only thanks to my good vets that I didn't.

Now I always keep charcoal in my house in case one of my dogs manages to get chocolate again, my vets used charcoal to help with the chocolate poisoning, you can buy this in most health shops.

[Buddy'smyboy]

Wow that's scary Mattie I'm glad it was only four chocolate kisses or that couldn't have been a lot worse. I bet you recommend your vet to all your friends and neighbors now Thanks everybody, just wanted to know. It sounds like it would take quite a few chocolate kisses to really harm him. I'm very greatfull our friends didn't leave a whole box of them!

[wvvdiup1]

Buddy'myboy, Please DO NOT FEED YOUR DOGS CHOCOLATE!

[Buddy'smyboy]

Buddy'myboy, Please DO NOT FEED YOUR DOGS CHOCOLATE!

I would never dream of it. I'll just be sure our neighbors know not to leave chocolate kisses- or anything chocolate for that matter - in reach of him on the porch again

[wvvdiup1]

I couldn't disagree with you there, Buddy'smyboy! I just need to get my family to stop this bad behavior! How do you train "hard heads"?

[Buddy'smyboy]

I couldn't disagree with you there, Buddy'smyboy! I just need to get my family to stop this bad behavior! How do you train "hard heads"?

Well I don't know how to train hard heads- maybe if you be suffocatingly nice to them and in the way you ask them they'll do it so'll you'll go away? It might also have to do with they don't think it is dangerous. When my grandma was young (let's see, 63 years ago she would have been 10) she and her family had never even heard of chocolate being poisonous to dogs and they always shared their chocolate chip cookies and other yummy goodies with their dogs all the time without incident so they had no reason to think it was. Although like Buddy's case, this was probably because they didn't ingest enough. (Of course she knows now so we don't do it)

[Nettle]

yesterday I visited someone who said (as she fed her dogs chocolates) that she had always fed her dogs chocolate and grapes and she wasn't going to stop now.

You can't fix stupid.

[Noobs]

A stranger on a message board I used to go to told me to give my dog M&Ms as training treats.

[Buddy'smyboy]

A stranger on a message board I used to go to told me to give my dog M&Ms as training treats.

That's scary. If you had a little dog it could reach the chocolately limit real fast...

[wvvdiup1]

Nettle wrote:

You can't fix stupid.

No,you sure can't! "Stupid is, Stupid does!" (I remembered that one from the movie Forest Gump! Any one remembered that movie? "Life is like a box of chocolates..."

[Buddy'smyboy]

Nettle wrote:

You can't fix stupid.

No,you sure can't! "Stupid is, Stupid does!" (I remembered that one from the movie Forest Gump! Any one remembered that movie? "Life is like a box of chocolates..."

I had a dream last night... I don't know who's house I was in... but they had five little dogs (puppies I think) and two big dogs and they jumped up a lot so everytime they did I would turn my back to them before turning back around when they had been back on the ground for a few seconds and somehow I trained them not to jump up in a few minutes (actually, there was kind of like a speed up moment in the midde, like someone pressed fast forward and boom suddenly I had trained them. Kind of hard to explain) and they were standing nicely and I was loving them and the owner who was sitting in a chair with their feet up just watching. And then the second owner came in through the kitchen with the food bowls and they handed me one asking if I would want to feed them and when I looked in the foodbowl.... FANCY CHOCOLATE CANDIES, DOG TREATS, AND PRETZELS I looked at my mom who was sitting in a chair behind me and we gave each other this, Ummm, uh, o-okay, chocolate... for dogs, um..., look. I can't remember exactly what happened after that point. I think I asked the owners about the chocolate and then I woke up. It was a really weird dream though. However, if I had to intrepret its origins and meaning, I'd say chocolate came from here, jumping up training came from training Buddy not to do that, and the guy in the chair with his feet up is the laziness I'm trying to fight off in waking up at 4a.m. to walk Buddy (I'm on day three Now I have to go fight off laziness and do it, I've been up for an hour and the bus comes in half in hour). I still have no idea where the pretzels came from.

[wvvdiup1]

Hmmm... Sure don't need to call Dr. Sigmund Freud on this one!

Don't worry Buddy'smyboy, because I'm sure we've had dreams like that at some point in our sleep, it just our minds rearranging things!