Chocolate incident, very worried (shih tzu, biting, clean, poop)
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We have been giving Willie short amounts of time alone in the house, uncrated, to see if he's reached the point of maturity where he can be trusted loose in a confined portion of the house...the crate causes such anxiety, we wanted to see if he's past his getting into everything point. We dogproofed the house as well as it can be, and gated off the part where we have to move the trash, etc. to when he's left alone. We've been doing this for about a month, and no mishaps, yet.
I left for about an hour this a.m. to run errands, and when I got back, I found, in addition to a puddle of pee on the second tier of the coffee table, toppled laundry hamper and about ten destroyed pairs of underwear, the remains of the wrapper of a bar of Lindt Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt, which I know was about half-gone, and which I thought was inaccessible to him. Never underestimate a beagle.
So I know that chocolate is no good for dogs, and especially dark chocolate. I know that up to an hour had passed since he ate it, and I know that it was approx. half a large bar. He's about 35 lbs. I called the vet, and was told to give him a half a tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide orally, and that that should induce vomiting in about 20 minutes.
It's been about ten, and I have him out on his tie in the front yard, and I'm sitting out here on the porch with him...He hasn't vomited yet, and is just pretty much acting like Willie, barking curiously at other dogs and people who go by. I had to go to Walgreens to get the peroxide, but it's about a two minute drive, so I loaded him up with me so as not to leave him unattended. Driving over there and back, I was monitoring him...he seemed to be panting and hot (even in the A/C of the car), but he's been panicky ever since the weekend, since he hates the fireworks that have been everywhere in the neighborhood.
Still in my eyeshot, and still no vomiting. I kind of eyeballed the amount of peroxide, because I wanted to give it quickly, and didn't want to lose anymore time by going and getting a measuring spoon...maybe I underdosed?
It took my bichon mix 25 minutes to throw up after giving him hydrogen peroxide. He is 22 pounds. My shih tzu mix took 3 minutes and he is 25 pounds. You may have underdosed if you tried just spooning or squirting it into his mouth. If he spit it out some, then it didn't do its job. I give it to my dogs on a piece of bread - just spoon it over a piece of bread and the dog will gobble it down. Things I've seen on the internet say about one teaspoon per 10 pounds of dog. Call your vet back and ask if you can give another dose.
When Dash was still alive I had to use the hydrogen peroxide a couple times and yes once was for eating chocolate at the time I did not know which dog did it but so they both got it and vomited big time and it turned out it was Dash that ate the chocolate.
The dose was 1 tsp of 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10lbs and I had a syringe so was able to squirt it down their throats. They both vomited in about 5 minutes. Which was what happened the other times I used it too., You can repeat the dose once if they do not vomit and sometimes it helps to walk them around a bit.
When Bailey was about 9 months old, she ate a couple of chocolate candy bars that trick or treaters had apparently dropped on the ground and i didn't see...... she was sick with vomiting and diarrhea all day the next day and in every single room of my house..... but after that was just fine...... other than being HORRIBLY embarrassed at the mess she made..... she stayed with me as i cleaned everything up that evening, but kept her head hung low and couldn't look me in the eye...... i felt like the WORST dog mom in the world.... but in the end, she was just fine.......
if he hasn't started vomiting yet, maybe try giving him another dose of the peroxide......
So far, nothing, other than his usual freakout at seeing the postal carrier, who just went down the other side of the street. He dropped a deuce a minute ago, but it doesn't appear to be diarrhea-like, just a normal poop.
I will try the second dose on bread. When I dosed him the first time, I held his chin up so it would run down his throat, didn't let him spit/drool it out, but like I said, I may have underestimated the amount.
One problem is that all the signs of chocolate poisoning are for the most part signs of anxiety that he's been exhibiting since Friday night, when all the neighbors started doing fireworks, or things that he just does all the time when it's hot, like excessive panting and such. So it's hard to tell if he's in distress, because he's been stressed for days, now.
He does seem to have a tough digestive tract...at Christmas, he stole and ate an entire box of wrapped candy canes, and then ate dinner on top of that and rode in the car for eight hours. He vomited a big pile as soon as we got to our destination, but other than that, was no worse for the wear.
We had a number of dogs when I was a kid long before it was "known" that chocolate was bad for them. We gave every one of them chocolate of all kinds. The last one lived 15 years, none of them lived less than 12 years. I wouldn't worry at all.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TabulaRasa
I feel like a monster, and am beside myself.
We have been giving Willie short amounts of time alone in the house, uncrated, to see if he's reached the point of maturity where he can be trusted loose in a confined portion of the house...the crate causes such anxiety, we wanted to see if he's past his getting into everything point. We dogproofed the house as well as it can be, and gated off the part where we have to move the trash, etc. to when he's left alone. We've been doing this for about a month, and no mishaps, yet.
I left for about an hour this a.m. to run errands, and when I got back, I found, in addition to a puddle of pee on the second tier of the coffee table, toppled laundry hamper and about ten destroyed pairs of underwear, the remains of the wrapper of a bar of Lindt Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt, which I know was about half-gone, and which I thought was inaccessible to him. Never underestimate a beagle.
So I know that chocolate is no good for dogs, and especially dark chocolate. I know that up to an hour had passed since he ate it, and I know that it was approx. half a large bar. He's about 35 lbs. I called the vet, and was told to give him a half a tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide orally, and that that should induce vomiting in about 20 minutes.
It's been about ten, and I have him out on his tie in the front yard, and I'm sitting out here on the porch with him...He hasn't vomited yet, and is just pretty much acting like Willie, barking curiously at other dogs and people who go by. I had to go to Walgreens to get the peroxide, but it's about a two minute drive, so I loaded him up with me so as not to leave him unattended. Driving over there and back, I was monitoring him...he seemed to be panting and hot (even in the A/C of the car), but he's been panicky ever since the weekend, since he hates the fireworks that have been everywhere in the neighborhood.
Still in my eyeshot, and still no vomiting. I kind of eyeballed the amount of peroxide, because I wanted to give it quickly, and didn't want to lose anymore time by going and getting a measuring spoon...maybe I underdosed?
Scared.
The hydrogen peroxide needs to be a 3% solution. Peroxide isn't the best vomit inducer in the world, but it is relatively safe for dogs compared to ipecac. The problem is that if you get impatient and give the dog too much, the peroxide can actually inhibit vomiting. Call the vet again for clearance to go up to a full tablespoon or 1.5 tablespoons.
That said, the toxic dose for semisweet chocolate is about 1 oz per 3 lbs. of body weight in an adult dog. If Willie didn't eat more than 7-12 oz. (depending on how dark the bar was) he's probably just going to have some nice runny turds.
Okay, called the vet, and just put the appropriate dosage amount on a heel of bread, and WOW, he did not wanna eat it...kept nosing it aside. He did get it down, though. It is the 3% solution straight up, which is what the vet's office, who have not sounded particularly alarmist, told me to use...not a diluted solution in larger amounts, etc.
We shall see. He's panting a lot, but it's hot, and he did just have the usual daily freakout at the mailman, which tends to wear him out. But he's pretty much acting like Willie.
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ACK! I've got no advice at all. I'm just antsy, right along with you. That said, I think Willie is going to be fine. He's a Beagle -- think about all the crap he's gotten into (and eaten) already. And if Jimbo is right, and if Willie only ate half of a 2.5 oz bar (that's the size, right?), you've got NOTHING to worry about.
I'd bet that even if he doesn't puke, he's going to be 100% fine.
You're doing all the right things. Try to stay calm. I wonder if Willie is sensing your anxiety and that's adding to his own anxiety?
PS. Hey, Willie, enough with the foraging for food (be it chocolate or UNDERWEAR)! You're scaring your Mama!
We had a number of dogs when I was a kid long before it was "known" that chocolate was bad for them. We gave every one of them chocolate of all kinds. The last one lived 15 years, none of them lived less than 12 years. I wouldn't worry at all.
This was my experience, as well...we had big farm dogs, followed no particular precautions...they ate what we ate, including all sorts of stuff that's billed as bad for dogs (my malamute would actually dig up onions from the garden to munch on). I have no doubt that they ate chocolate reasonably often enough, among other things.
I guess the reason I worry for Willie is because he's nowhere near as big as the hulking, rough-and-tumble dogs we had out on the farm, and something toxic won't be as diluted in his system as in a bigger dogs'.
Upon further investigation on the actual cacao content of Lindt's Dark Touch of Sea Salt bars, it appears that, compared to their other dark chocolate offerings, it barely qualifies as dark chocolate...only 47% cacao. The whole bar is 3.5 oz, and was half gone, so he ate 1.75 oz.
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