Chocolate is delicious food and can relieve stress, but it’s for humans, and did you know that chocolate is actually dangerous for dogs?
Chocolate contains theobromine, it’s a substance similar to caffeine. This substance is harmless to humans but harmful to dogs. Even, this substance can be toxic to them.
Chocolate can cause health problems for dogs depending on how much they eat it. Small amounts of chocolate will cause your pet dog to diarrhea and vomit.
Large amounts of chocolate can cause your dog to shiver and have seizures, tremors, coma, and even death. So, what you should do when your dog eats chocolate?
The greater the amount of chocolate and the longer the chocolate is in its system, the more dangerous the impact it will have on the dog’s health. Therefore, you must understand how dogs communicate with you and immediately do the following things if they eat chocolate.
If you find your dog has swallowed chocolate accidentally, here are the things you should do:
Seek Veterinarian Help
- Find out what kind and how much chocolate your dog eats.
Make sure you have information on the details of the chocolate and the amount of chocolate your dog has eaten when you call the vet. Your vet can give you the best advice for your pets if you provide the right information.
- Contact your vet for advice as soon as possible.
The vet will advise you on the steps to take, either by bringing the dog to the doctor’s office or directing you with steps you can take at home to help the dog.
- Take your dog to the vet, if that’s what the vet recommends.
Veterinarians have the knowledge, staff, medicine, and tools to treat a dog overdose on chocolate. The vet has a drug that can make a dog vomit if it has been ingested in the past hour or so. In some cases, the dog may need to be hospitalized overnight and a 24-hour emergency hospital is the best option.
Make Your Dog Vomit
- Try to make the dog vomit if recommended by the vet.
This should only be done if the chocolate has been swallowed before more than an hour and signs of nerve symptoms (tremor) are not visible. Keep in mind that there can be deadly complications when you try to make your dog vomit.
- Give your dog one teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide (3%).
Mix with water with a ratio of 50:50. You will probably spill a lot of it if you give it with a spoon, so it’s best to keep the oral medicinal spray in your dog’s emergency kit.
- Watch your dog for about 15 minutes.
Take it outside and watch closely. If they refuse, you should know why your dog refuse to go out. The outdoors will also be a better place for the dog to vomit. If the peroxide isn’t causing the dog to vomit after 15 minutes, give it another dose and wait.
- Don’t give any more peroxides.
If the dog still doesn’t vomit after 30 minutes have passed, don’t give it the peroxide again. Too much peroxide can harm your dog. There are several possible side effects of your dog consuming hydrogen peroxide, even if only once.
Possible side effects are mild to severe irritation and inflammation of the stomach and esophagus, aspiration (entry of something into the lungs that can cause death), and formation of bubbles in the bloodstream (also potentially deadly).
- Try giving your dog activated charcoal as a last option.
Activated charcoal helps by preventing the intestinal absorption of toxic elements contained in chocolate. The usual dose of activated charcoal used is 1 gram of powdered charcoal mixed with 5 ml (one teaspoon) of water for every kilogram of dog weight.
This is the last option to help the dog where professional veterinary care isn’t available, and should ideally only be done when advised by a vet.
Don’t give charcoal to dogs that are vomiting, showing tremor symptoms, or symptoms of sudden onset of brain disease. It will be deadly for dogs when charcoal enters the lungs.
It’s very difficult to give a dog large quantities of charcoal without a stomach tube, and you will need to repeat this process every 4-6 hours for 2-3 days. Keep in mind that the dog’s poop will be black and may be constipated.
Also, one of the serious side effects of giving charcoal is an increased level of sodium in the blood which can cause tremors and sudden onset of brain disease. The resulting symptoms will look like those of a nerve problem caused by chocolate poisoning.
Avoid using charcoal with Sorbitol continuously, as this will increase the likelihood of diarrhea and dehydration as well as more serious complications in dogs.
And, If your dog has recovered, don’t forget to do this simple exercises for your dog to maintain its health
So remember, if you plan to go on a long holiday without your dog, keep it away from all foods that contain chocolate, or you have to know where to leave dog when you go on holiday.