Dogs eating raisins and chocolate

Semple said:
Same for onions and garlic. Whist you might not see any reaction with one, it could still cause problems, so better safe than sorry.

We're very cautious with chocolate, grapes, garlic, and onion around our boy.
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The breeder we bought from highly recommended garlic as a natural de-wormer, we chose not to follow this advice since had read the same although he had tons of dogs about so /shrug
 
If my dog had to go to the vet every time he ate something slightly risky for dogs (or anything else) I'd have been there daily :D Labs will eat anything and everything given the opportunity. He wasn't a fat lab like most end up being, very active and was rewarded for his efforts (and also helped himself to various discarded food & roadkill). I once saw him suck down a crunchy rotting trout from the river bank and keep it down afterwards.

My partner went silly about me feeding the dogs apple cores becasue there's cyanide in the seeds (as do other fruits to be fair). Turns out it takes quite a few hundred in one sitting. He did nearly choke to death on a rawhide treat someone gave him (wouldn't have myself, nasty things). I had to remove it from his throat and he chewed up my hand for the privilege.

He died at 17 years old this April :(
 
Dup said:
If my dog had to go to the vet every time he ate something slightly risky for dogs (or anything else) I'd have been there daily :D Labs will eat anything and everything given the opportunity. [..]
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That brings back memories. When I was a little kid, our neighbours had a labrador. Seemed about as big as a donkey to me. Very fit and strong and vigorous at that time, happy as Larry to be out regularly on long runs (the neighbours were distance runners for fun). I fed the dog sometimes and was in awe at how much it ate and how fast. Labs are food hoovers even by dog standards.
 
MrRockliffe said:
Like with many things, it’s often over exaggerated and with little evidence to back it up.
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There's enough that canine veterinary manuals provide a chocolate toxicity calculator, to ascertain whether treatments are necessary and whether it requires emergency intervention.
Around 8g milk chocolate (0.9g of cooking) per kg of bodyweight seems to be the real danger point, but it's also highly dependent upon other factors too. The scary part is how little cooking chocolate is needed before you get the returned value of either 'Death possible' or even 'death probable'.

Chocolate toxicity can also result in seizures, tremors, irregular heart rate, heart attack or internal bleeding, as well as death. Usually these symptoms present soon after a period of hyperactivity, but they may occur out of your sight or while you're not around.
Plus chocolate is often full of other harmful things too, like preservatives, sugar and fat - This last one can cause pancreatitis, which is another life-threatening condition and extremely painful even if it doesn't kill.
Also, repeated exposure carries a cumulative risk of poisoning, as well as other conditions.

You'll always get tales from people who knew dogs that ate XYZ and never died. Doesn't mean all dogs are utterly immune, so why would you want to risk it?
However much chocolate your dog just ate, it's always worth simply phoning the vet for their advice.
 
mcast123 said:
When I was growing up 30 years ago, our dogs ate chocolate and grapes at least once a week, in fact I'm sure we actually fed them grapes as treats. Every dog we had died very old.

My girlfriend just rushed her dog to the vet after eating raisins, after a quick google, every site is saying even one grape can kill a dog.

Were we just uneducated before the interwebs?
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Same, grapes, a cup of tea and chocolate digestive (or whatever biscuit we had in the tin) in the morning as a treat during breakfast.

Looking back, thankfully, our dogs lived to a decent age. We would never dream of giving a treat knowing it would cause an issue and we were clueless like you say.
 
Our dog used to get vicious if anyone didnt share their biscuits with her, and would only drink tea out of fine bone china cup.
 
LizardKing said:
we had a lab growing up who thought nothing of polishing off a tin of roses (somehow leaving the wrappers!...) much to the dismay of 12year old me, he lived to +12 years, i doubt it did him any good (nor the Easter eggs he also made little work of) but thats likely to the questionable chocolate content of said sweets! but like the saying goes ignorance is bliss
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I remember my friend’s Labrador eating their Easter eggs one year. He ate the foil, left the plastic.

He only died a few years ago…must have been closing on 20 years old.
 
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