Sick as a dog...literally

February 21, 2009 10:16 PM

My 18 lb whippett-terrier mix may have eaten up to 8 dark chocolate truffles. He's shaking some, but not vomiting. Can I take him to the vet in the AM, or should I wake the vet up *now.* It's past 1am on the east coast of the US now, where I am.
posted by littlerobothead to pets & animals (21 comments total)

I would call if my 55 lb dog ate that much chocolate. I would rather regret waking the vet for a silly reason than regret not calling because my dog is dead.
posted by Foam Pants at 10:20 PM on February 21

Dark chocolate I would take my dog to the vet immediately.

The toxic components in chocolate are theobromine and caffeine, although the theobromine is the biggest toxin to be worried about. The toxic and potentially fatal dose of chocolate is 60mg/kg. So a 10 lb dog would only need to consume 300mg of chocolate, or as little as 100mg to start having signs of problems.

To put this in perspective, a 5 oz milk chocolate bar has 250mg of theobromine, the same as 30 semisweet chocolate chips. But a dark chocolate bar (with 70% cocoa), has 600 mg of throbromine. And one ounce of dry cocoa powder has 700 mg of theobromine.

So a dog only has to eat only one third as much dark chocolate to become seriously ill. And this is becoming a great concern, with more and more people switching to dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate because it is healthier for humans to consume. But it becomes a greater risk for your dogs.
posted by sanka at 10:23 PM on February 21

Ok, here is some stuff I found on toxicity levels:
Toxic Levels

The good news is that it takes, on average, a fairly large amount of theobromine 100-150 mg/kg to cause a toxic reaction. Although there are variables to consider like the individual sensitivity, animal size and chocolate concentration.

On average,
Milk chocolate contains 44 mg of theobromine per oz.
Semisweet chocolate contains 150mg/oz.
Baker's chocolate 390mg/oz.

Using a dose of 100 mg/kg as the toxic dose it comes out roughly as:
1 ounce per 1 pound of body weight for Milk chocolate
1 ounce per 3 pounds of body weight for Semisweet chocolate
1 ounce per 9 pounds of body weight for Baker's chocolate.

So, for example, 2 oz. of Baker's chocolate can cause great risk to an 15 lb. dog. Yet, 2 oz. of Milk chocolate usually will only cause digestive problems.

If each chocolate is 2 oz and the chocolates are equal to milk chocolate, it would be a toxic dose for a 16 lb dog. If they are closer to semi-sweet, it would be toxic to a 24 lb dog. Note: I am bad at math.
posted by Foam Pants at 10:25 PM on February 21

IANAV<> I would say I would keep an eye on her, since she is so small, but waiting til morning to call vet is probably okay.
Just checked dog owner digest, and that figure is for milk chocolate. If it was pure dark chocolate, it appears as if the quantity of safely consumed chocolate is much lower.
The symptoms can be seen in the first few hours, and include vomiting and diarrhea, so keep an eye out for those.
posted by newpotato at 10:26 PM on February 21

ASPCA has a poison-control hotline you can call 24 hours a day - they "may" charge a 60-dollar fee, I'm not sure what that means. They'll have information for you about emergency vets in the area, and if they think it's something that can be treated at home, they'll walk you through it.

(I know about this because my stupid dog fortunately is on the HomeAgain program that gets me free access to the hotline. Less than a month after I got it, said Idiot Dog ate half a bakery box of chocolate-chip cookies. They walked me through removing the cookies from a dog. She survived, I survived, a throw-rug didn't.)
posted by cmyk at 10:27 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]

sorry, half of my post disappeared, but it looks as if the same info I wrote is given in the post above mine.
I had a 60 pound dog that ate an entire one pound bag of hershey kisses, foil and all, and the only result was he having sparkly poo for the next few days.
posted by newpotato at 10:29 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]

How big were the truffles? It's impossible to now the answer without knowing how many ounces of chocolate are in the truffles. An 18 lb dog is small enough that the size of the truffle is going to be critical; certainly the dog is small enough that the possibility of theobromine toxicity can't be ruled out.

My back of the envelope calculation using 6oz of chocolate per truffle and 8 truffles puts it right on the edge of dangerous. But I don't know how big the truffles were and you don't know how many truffles he actually ate, so we aren't going to be able to tell.
posted by Justinian at 10:29 PM on February 21

I'd rather be safe than sorry. Call the vet.
posted by cmgonzalez at 10:34 PM on February 21

There's 8 oz of chocolate to a cup. Each truffle having 6 oz of pure chocolate? That seems really unlikely. 10 oz of chocolate makes 30-35 truffles.
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:34 PM on February 21

Thanks, all. I've called Animal Poison Control. They're saying to play it safe, too, so I'm waking the vet.
posted by littlerobothead at 10:40 PM on February 21

Don't try to do the toxicity math yourself. You may get it right, but if you get it wrong, you'll hate yourself.

Call the ASPCA poison control line. It's worth the $60.00. If they do advise you to go to the emergency vet, they'll give you a case number so that the vet can phone them to consult about the case.

There's an weird little corgi asleep on my couch right now who has benefitted enormously from the ASPCA poison control line's services in the past.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 10:41 PM on February 21

Small dog + dark chocolate = Another vote for playing it safe.
posted by bunji at 10:46 PM on February 21

If you can't get a hold of your regular vet, remember that there may be an after-hours emergency vet hospital in your area, just for times such as this.
posted by frobozz at 11:13 PM on February 21

Anecdotal: When my year-old 10lb miniature schnauzer ate a half pound of Easter chocolate (mostly waxy milk chocolate), I called the vet immediately and was told to give her two tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting. I spent the next hour with her in the back yard while she vomited all of it up.

I really recommend you call the vet.
posted by rhapsodie at 11:54 PM on February 21

Alright all: just got back from the vet, who induced vomiting (which yielded lots and lots of partially digested chocolate from my poor little buddy) and sent us home with activated charcoal to feed him. Your quick responses are very much appreciated. I'm exhausted now, but feel little closer to not only my pet but humanity.
posted by littlerobothead at 12:12 AM on February 22 [3 favorites]

For future info... our dog found and ate most of a bar of dark chocolate the first week we had her (I keep them safe away now!), and we immediately induced vomiting with hydrogen peroxide. She threw it all up, and I felt like a fiend - first for leaving the chocolate out, and then having to make her sick like that, but she was safe.

We mixed the hydrogen peroxide with ice cream. Dose: one teaspoon 3% hydrogen peroxide per 10 pounds of body weight.
posted by taz at 5:39 AM on February 22

glad your dog is okay. for future reference: any if in a sentence dealing with life and death issues means err on the side of safety. it would have been perfectly acceptable for you to wake the vet.
posted by krautland at 6:10 AM on February 22 [1 favorite]

The problem with using hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting is that it's a poison unto itself. If your animal doesn't vomit (such as my stubborn pug who doesn't give up food for ANYTHING) you'll definitely have to take them to the expensive emergency vet anyway.

Ripley had to go to the emergency vet, where they pumped her full of active charcoal after unsuccessfully trying several ways to induce vomiting.

I'd go the active charcoal route if it comes up in the future. Ripley farted charcoal rings on our beige carpet for a few days, but that seemed to be the only ongoing symptom.
posted by answergrape at 7:50 AM on February 22

Also for future reference - most areas have an emergency vet that's open all night, just like an ER. It's more expensive, but if you know where it is, next time you might not have to wake your vet. I keep the number and address on my refrigerator. Unfortunately, I have had to use it.

That having been said, my 6 pound Maltese once ate half a box of double chocolate chip Entenmanns cookies. I was a new dog owner at the time so I wasn't sure what to do - I just kept an eye on her all night. Like cmyk, dog survived, off-white wall to wall carpeting, not so much. But I don't think there's very much actual chocolate in those cookies.
posted by walla at 10:29 AM on February 22

Good on you for taking the pooch in - and as you can see, it was necessary. Just remember to be extra paranoid from now on about where you put things - if it's edible, it's gotta be out of reach. With a whippet mix this may mean closed away in the pantry or another secure place, since the little devils can flat out jump. A dog's first rule is "If I can reach it, it's mine." Its second rule is "if I can eat it, I will." We've learned this lesson in the past, although not as traumatically as you. Good luck healing the pup up and here's to a lot of doggie fun ahead.
posted by azpenguin at 10:29 AM on February 22

Just a footnote; not sure where you are but the Tufts Vet School Foster Hospital for Small Animals has a 24 x 7 ER. You may want to find area vet schools with similar ERs and write down the info.
posted by andreap at 1:10 PM on February 22