Wednesday 19 December 2012

[www.keralites.net] Chocolates rally kill dogs. - article in Guardian newspaper UK

 

Can chocolate really kill dogs?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2225631,00.html

Stuart Jeffries
Tuesday 11 December 2007
The Guardian


Want to give your dog hyperthermia, muscle tremors, seizures? Put it into a coma? Or simply kill it? If so, feed it chocolate this Christmas - ideally posh dark chocolate containing particularly high levels of theobromine.

Theobromine is a bitter alkaloid of the cocoa plant found in chocolate. Although harmless to humans, it can cause vomiting, diarrhoea, convulsions and even death in animals that digest theobromine slowly, such as dogs. The lethal dosage is between 250 and 500mg per kg of body weight. So if Rover's a chihuahua, that chocolate button will be more toxic than if he were a rottweiler.

Usually, the darker the chocolate, the more theobromine it contains. A 40g bar of Green Black's organic dark 70% chocolate, for instance, contains 48mg theobromine - not enough to kill, perhaps, but enough to induce what vets call "digestive issues", not to mention dehydration, excitability, and a slow heart rate. White chocolate contains lower proportions of theobromine.

The RSPCA has long campaigned against feeding dogs chocolate - especially at Christmas, when tree decorations, chocolate boxes and unsuspecting owners provide lots of opportunities for theobromine poisoning. Last year the Veterinary Poisons Information Service received 790 calls about chocolate poisoning; this year the figure is already at 844. Steve Cheetham, RSPCA head of veterinary services, says: "Special chocolate drops are available from pet shops if you want to give your dog a chocolate treat." These are made of carob and so contain no theobromine.

If caught early, theobromine poisoning is treatable. Ask yourself this, though: do you really want to spend Christmas inducing your dog to vomit and/or feeding him charcoal slurry, which absorbs the toxic material? The answer is no.

Ravi
www.keralites.net

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