Pet Corner

Common Foods Poisonous to Pets

By Gary L. Ailes, DVM

This month, I want to take a close look at food and other items that are toxic to your pets.

Xylitol is a sweetener that is used in many different forms of diet gums, food and just as a sugar replacement. Its caloric content is about 2/3 of glucose. In dogs, it can cause a severe drop in blood sugar due to a large insulin release following ingestion. While some dogs may tolerate a little, I would keep anything that contains xylitol away from your dogs.

Cats usually avoid things that may be bad for them, but it has been found that cats, for some reason, like the prescription drug, Adderall®. They will actually eat the entire pill. This is a drug for ADD and one that should never be left out in the open when cats are in the house.

Chocolate contains theobromine, a compound that is a cardiac stimulant and a diuretic. The signs of sickness in dogs may not be seen for several hours, with death following within twenty-four hours. Symptoms include staggering, labored breathing, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, tremors, fever, heart rate increase, arrhythmia, seizures, coma and death.

Cocoa powder and cooking chocolate are the most toxic forms. A 22-pound dog can be seriously affected if it eats a quarter of a 250 gm packet of cocoa powder or half of a 250 gm block of cooking chocolate. These forms of chocolate contain ten times more theobromine than milk chocolate. Thus, a chocolate mud cake could be a real health risk for a small dog. Even licking a substantial part of the chocolate icing from a cake can make a dog unwell.

Semi-sweet chocolate and dark chocolate are the next most dangerous forms, with milk chocolate being the least dangerous. A dog needs to eat more than a 250 gm block of milk chocolate to be affected. Obviously, the smaller the dog, the less it needs to eat.

If your dog has eaten chocolate, the best approach is getting it to vomit. Giving a small dog a teaspoon or two of hydrogen peroxide and a large dog a tablespoon or two will usually get them to vomit and if they do not, repeat the dose while you call your veterinarian.

Onions and garlic contain the toxic ingredient thiosulphate. Onions are more of a danger. Pets affected by onion toxicity will develop hemolytic anemia, where the pet’s red blood cells burst while circulating in its body. Symptoms are labored breathing, liver damage, vomiting, diarrhea and discolored urine. The poisoning occurs a few days after the pet has eaten the onion and all forms of onion can be a problem.

While garlic also contains the toxic ingredient thiosulphate, it seems that garlic is less toxic and large amounts would need to be eaten to cause illness. Onion poisoning can occur with a single ingestion of large quantities or with repeated meals containing small amounts of onion. A single meal of 600 to 800 grams of raw onion can be dangerous, whereas a 22-pound dog, fed 150 grams of onion for several days, is also likely to develop anemia. The condition improves once the dog is prevented from eating any further onion.

Grapes and raisins are toxic and cause acute kidney failure. While the actual dose needed to produce toxicities is not known, a small handful of grapes may be enough to cause toxicity in a 20-pound dog. Vomiting may occur within a few hours, up to 24 hours. If it occurs early you may see skins in the vomited material. If you know your dog ate grapes, aggressive intravenous therapy needs to be initiated as soon as possible and continued for 72 hours. If too much damage is present in the kidneys, even aggressive therapy may not be enough.

Macadamia nuts are another possible problem, along with many other kinds of nuts. Dogs develop a tremor of the skeletal muscles, and weakness or paralysis of the hindquarters. Affected dogs are often unable to rise and are distressed and may have a fever. Some affected dogs have swollen limbs and show pain when the limbs are manipulated. As little as one nut per pound may be enough to cause these problems.

Vomiting early on may be helpful if absorption of the nut has not occurred yet. As with other toxins above, giving activated charcoal after the vomiting has stopped may help keep the material from being absorbed. (Note that VRP’s activated charcoal formula EnteraKlenz contains xylitol and should not be given to dogs.)

Raw eggs contain an enzyme called avidin, which decreases the absorption of biotin (a B vitamin). This can lead to skin and hair coat problems. Raw eggs may also contain Salmonella. Cooking the egg degrades the avidin and avoids that problem. If you feel you need to give your dog a raw egg every week or two, wash it well first to help avoid the possible problem with Salmonella.

Raw fish can result in a thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency leading to loss of appetite, seizures and in severe cases, death. Occasionally, in cats, the problem will manifest as pain along the spine, which seems to radiate out from the muscles. This can occur when feeding a fish-based diet or more commonly, if raw fish is fed regularly.

The last comment today relates to poultry bones. When cooked, the hollow bones splinter into sharp shards, which can lacerate or even penetrate the gastrointestinal tract when your dog eats them. Taking care of that problem can be expensive and life threatening. While your dog may not have a problem most of the time, when it does occur, it is not pretty. Best advice: do not feed cooked chicken bones to your dog.

To strengthen your pets’ intestinal tracts and to lay a foundation of overall health, BioPRO™, which is a probiotic formula, can be used.