Dog Owners Only

Given the vast quantities of avocado that one of my dogs used to eat, and how much chocolate another one has consumed in a sitting before we caught him with minimal side effects, I take most of that with a grain of salt. A lot of what's listed there has the same effect in humans, so it's kind of silly, and for example the one about garlic, using the math they give my dog would need to eat over 1/3rd of a pound of garlic to get the toxic effects. That sounds horrifying for more reasons than just digestive issues.

I always thought it was the enzymes in the cocoa itself in chocolate not caffeine. I can attest to the digestive problems from what you might as well call processed people food. My in-law's dog was always sick to his stomach and throwing up because they always fed him people food. I couldn't convince them they were the problem. They always just said he had a "sensitive" stomach. Never mind they fed him high fat and sodium foods EVERY day.

It's actually both. Chocolate contains two different methylxanthines (theobromine and caffeine). Methylxanthine toxicosis is what's at play here. Dogs are way more sensitive to methylxanthines than humans are. The effect of methylxanthines on dogs can include increased heart rate and contraction, GI issues, neuromuscular excitation (seizures!), and can lead to death. I've dealt with many cases of chocolate toxicity, but I haven't really had severe cases. Typically what we'll see is hyperexcitability and GI upset, maybe increased heart rate.

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