Chocolate and dogs

Over the years there’s one answer that has to do with dogs I never understood until now and that’s “why can’t I feed my dog chocolate?” The only answer I got was that the dogs will die if they eat it. I just never knew the reasoning behind it until this very year.

Chocolate is that gooey sweetness you can’t get enough of. It helps you through life in just about anything, from having a bad day or just eating some for the hell of it. Unfortunately for dogs that isn’t the case. Chocolate for them can equal to illness and in worst case death.

The main substance in chocolate that can cause a dogs death is theobrine. According to Merrian Webster “theobrine a bitter alkaloid C7H8N4O2 closely related to caffeine that occurs especially in cacao beans and has stimulant and diuretic properties.” When we ingest this toxic it metabolizes at a normal rate for us. With dogs though, the toxic takes more time to metablize and start to affect stuff like the cns, heart and kidneys.

There are different kinds of chocolate: white, milk, dark, cocoa powder, ect. The least harmful that won’t affect your dog that much is white, which has about 1 mg per ounce of theobrine. The chocolate that has the most is the kind you bake stuff with, like cookies. It averages out to be about 450 mg per ounce of theobrine. (health and age.)

If you don’t know what signs to look for and also what to do if your dog eats too much chocolate, listen up. According to Roni Roberts on WebMD Pet Health Feature, she says to call the vet right away instead of  waiting for the warning signs, if your dog ate chocolate. The warning signs which are extreme thirst, diaareha, too much energy, pacing, panting, shaking and seizure can show up any time between 6-12 hrs. Something tragic could happen at anytime in between that period, so its best to go to the vet immediately. When at the vet they’ll ask questions about……… One of the medicines they’ll use to help get the chocolate out is a drug called apomorphine. This helps the dog to vomit most of the toxic out.

17 thoughts on “Chocolate and dogs

  1. Elizabeth Sweitzer

    I don’t have a dog, but I was always told not to feed my cats chocolate for the same reason. I actually thought my mom was joking and that everyone telling me this had no idea what they were talking about, so I started giving my cats chocolate milk for a short period of time. After reading this and knowing there is actual truth to that statement, I will definitely not be giving my cats any chocolate. Good post!

  2. Katie Anne Hagar

    I don’t have a dog, although I have heard many times not to feed them chocolate. I always worry when they eat chocolate by accident because I do not know how much is too much. I understand the concept of how fast theobrine can be metabolized, but I feel that I need a better understanding of the metabolizing process. What is involved? How fast are other foods metabolized in comparison to chocolate? Also, while I do not have a dog, I ride horses. I have always wondered whether it is ok for horses to eat chocolate? Now I know I should be asking how fast they metabolize chocolate.

  3. Taylor Harrington

    What a funny topic to choose! We all wondered about this when we were little, and here we are finding out the answer on your blog post! Grapes are another danger to dogs. I wonder what is it about those that make them so dangerous. I would’ve loved to have learned more about a specific experiment that studied dogs eating chocolate (or grapes!!!) to observe the consequences. Reid, who commented on this post before me, said that his dog ate chocolate and survived. I wonder if a study was conducted with a few different types of dogs, would the results differ compared to a study conducted with all the same breed. Just something to think about 🙂

  4. Taylor Harrington

    What a funny topic to choose! We all wondered about this when we were little, and here we are finding out the answer on your blog post! Grapes are another danger to dogs. I wonder what is it about those that make them so dangerous. I would’ve loved to have learned more about a specific experiment that studied dogs eating chocolate (or grapes!!!) to observe the consequences. Reid, who commented on this post before me, said that his dog ate chocolate and survived. I wonder if a study was conducted with a few different types of dogs, would the results differ compared to a study conducted with all the same breed. Just something to think about 🙂

  5. Taylor Harrington

    What a funny topic to choose! We all wondered about this when we were little, and here we are finding out the answer on your blog post! Grapes are another danger to dogs. I wonder what is it about those that make them so dangerous. I would’ve loved to have learned more about a specific experiment that studied dogs eating chocolate (or grapes!!!) to observe the consequences. Reid, who commented on this post before me, said that his dog ate chocolate and survived. I wonder if a study was conducted with a few different types of dogs, would the results differ compared to a study conducted with all the same breed. Just something to think about 🙂

  6. Taylor Harrington

    What a funny topic to choose! We all wondered about this when we were little, and here we are finding out the answer on your blog post! Grapes are another danger to dogs. I wonder what is it about those that make them so dangerous. I would’ve loved to have learned more about a specific experiment that studied dogs eating chocolate (or grapes!!!) to observe the consequences. Reid, who commented on this post before me, said that his dog ate chocolate and survived. I wonder if a study was conducted with a few different types of dogs, would the results differ compared to a study conducted with all the same breed. Just something to think about 🙂

  7. Taylor Harrington

    What a funny topic to choose! We all wondered about this when we were little, and here we are finding out the answer on your blog post! Grapes are another danger to dogs. I wonder what is it about those that make them so dangerous. I would’ve loved to have learned more about a specific experiment that studied dogs eating chocolate (or grapes!!!) to observe the consequences. Reid, who commented on this post before me, said that his dog ate chocolate and survived. I wonder if a study was conducted with a few different types of dogs, would the results differ compared to a study conducted with all the same breed. Just something to think about 🙂

  8. Taylor Harrington

    What a funny topic to choose! We all wondered about this when we were little, and here we are finding out the answer on your blog post! Grapes are another danger to dogs. I wonder what is it about those that make them so dangerous. I would’ve loved to have learned more about a specific experiment that studied dogs eating chocolate (or grapes!!!) to observe the consequences. Reid, who commented on this post before me, said that his dog ate chocolate and survived. I wonder if a study was conducted with a few different types of dogs, would the results differ compared to a study conducted with all the same breed. Just something to think about 🙂

  9. Taylor Harrington

    What a funny topic to choose! We all wondered about this when we were little, and here we are finding out the answer on your blog post! Grapes are another danger to dogs. I wonder what is it about those that make them so dangerous. I would’ve loved to have learned more about a specific experiment that studied dogs eating chocolate (or grapes!!!) to observe the consequences. Reid, who commented on this post before me, said that his dog ate chocolate and survived. I wonder if a study was conducted with a few different types of dogs, would the results differ compared to a study conducted with all the same breed. Just something to think about 🙂

  10. Taylor Harrington

    What a funny topic to choose! We all wondered about this when we were little, and here we are finding out the answer on your blog post! Grapes are another danger to dogs. I wonder what is it about those that make them so dangerous. I would’ve loved to have learned more about a specific experiment that studied dogs eating chocolate (or grapes!!!) to observe the consequences. Reid, who commented on this post before me, said that his dog ate chocolate and survived. I wonder if a study was conducted with a few different types of dogs, would the results differ compared to a study conducted with all the same breed. Just something to think about 🙂

  11. Taylor Harrington

    What a funny topic to choose! We all wondered about this when we were little, and here we are finding out the answer on your blog post! Grapes are another danger to dogs. I wonder what is it about those that make them so dangerous. I would’ve loved to have learned more about a specific experiment that studied dogs eating chocolate (or grapes!!!) to observe the consequences. Reid, who commented on this post before me, said that his dog ate chocolate and survived. I wonder if a study was conducted with a few different types of dogs, would the results differ compared to a study conducted with all the same breed. Just something to think about 🙂

  12. Taylor Harrington

    What a funny topic to choose! We all wondered about this when we were little, and here we are finding out the answer on your blog post! Grapes are another danger to dogs. I wonder what is it about those that make them so dangerous. I would’ve loved to have learned more about a specific experiment that studied dogs eating chocolate (or grapes!!!) to observe the consequences. Reid, who commented on this post before me, said that his dog ate chocolate and survived. I wonder if a study was conducted with a few different types of dogs, would the results differ compared to a study conducted with all the same breed. Just something to think about 🙂

  13. Taylor Harrington

    What a funny topic to choose! We all wondered about this when we were little, and here we are finding out the answer on your blog post! Grapes are another danger to dogs. I wonder what is it about those that make them so dangerous. I would’ve loved to have learned more about a specific experiment that studied dogs eating chocolate (or grapes!!!) to observe the consequences. Reid, who commented on this post before me, said that his dog ate chocolate and survived. I wonder if a study was conducted with a few different types of dogs, would the results differ compared to a study conducted with all the same breed. Just something to think about 🙂

  14. Taylor Harrington

    What a funny topic to choose! We all wondered about this when we were little, and here we are finding out the answer on your blog post! Grapes are another danger to dogs. I wonder what is it about those that make them so dangerous. I would’ve loved to have learned more about a specific experiment that studied dogs eating chocolate (or grapes!!!) to observe the consequences. Reid, who commented on this post before me, said that his dog ate chocolate and survived. I wonder if a study was conducted with a few different types of dogs, would the results differ compared to a study conducted with all the same breed. Just something to think about 🙂

  15. Taylor Harrington

    What a funny topic to choose! We all wondered about this when we were little, and here we are finding out the answer on your blog post! Grapes are another danger to dogs. I wonder what is it about those that make them so dangerous. I would’ve loved to have learned more about a specific experiment that studied dogs eating chocolate (or grapes!!!) to observe the consequences. Reid, who commented on this post before me, said that his dog ate chocolate and survived. I wonder if a study was conducted with a few different types of dogs, would the results differ compared to a study conducted with all the same breed. Just something to think about 🙂

  16. Taylor Harrington

    What a funny topic to choose! We all wondered about this when we were little, and here we are finding out the answer on your blog post! Grapes are another danger to dogs. I wonder what is it about those that make them so dangerous. I would’ve loved to have learned more about a specific experiment that studied dogs eating chocolate (or grapes!!!) to observe the consequences. Reid, who commented on this post before me, said that his dog ate chocolate and survived. I wonder if a study was conducted with a few different types of dogs, would the results differ compared to a study conducted with all the same breed. Just something to think about 🙂

  17. Reid Baker

    I’m still not 100% sold on this fact because when I was younger my dog ate half of my chocolate cake and he lived for another 7 years so maybe it effects certain dogs more than others. I believe that it’s really not healthy for dogs to eat excess chocolate, but it could depend on the size of the dog. Maybe my dog was a freak thing but chocolate is definitely unhealthy for them because I know of another dog who died after getting into a bowl of hershey’s kisses.

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