What is it about chocolate that is bad for dogs?

[NFS4]

Is there any truth to this or is it just an old wives tale? I mean, my dog eats just about anything I eat from chicken to pork chops to steak (in addition to her own dog food). The only thing she won't eat is shrimp (funny how she dislikes the expensive stuff ). My old poodle even used to chew bubble gum and eat all kinds of candy. Never phased her a bit. I've even heard that dogs can take stuff like aspirin and tylenol in small portions to ease minor pains.

So my question is, if a dog's digestive system can handle all the aforementioned foods listed above (and then some), what is it about chocolate that is so bad? Are there some kind of toxins in it that don't affect humans that affect dogs?

 

[Harvey]

I don't know, but it could be because chocolate contains caffeine.

 

[NFS4]

Hmmm, that could explain it. Could give them a heart attack:Q

 

[Mark R]

Chocolate contains a chemical called theobromine (3,7 dimethylxanthine) which is closely related to caffeine (1,3,7 trimethylxanthine).

Anyway, humans can metabolise methylxanthines very quickly. As the breakdown occurs in the liver (the first place blood goes to after coming from stomach and intestine) relatively little reaches the rest of the body.

Dogs have a very much lower ability to degrade methylxanthines, and so toxic levels can reach the heart and other organs in the body. Further, as they can't be degraded, toxic levels can persist for a long time.

 

[Prodigy^]

my dog can eat anything.....once ate the ink-wetted things in a marker, no problem...has eating paperclips, bees, and once ate something like 1/4 kg of expensive Belgian, filled chocolate....it puked all night but didn't die

i've heard it can harm them as well, though

 

[kantonburg]

Prodigy your dog is frickin' cujo

 

[NFS4]

<< Prodigy your dog is frickin' cujo >>


ROTF

Thanks for the explanation, Mark R.

 

[Prodigy^]

lol I don't think so

http://hjem.get2net.dk/hl/prod/dog1.jpg

http://hjem.get2net.dk/hl/prod/dog2.jpg

 

[randypj]

I worked for a major vet pharmaceutical company. My manager used to take something we had for dogs when she had a headache. I asked her about it, and her boyfriend, who was a vet, had told her to, since it was the same basic thing as aspirin?

For dogs, as I recall from my &quot;neighbor-fightin'&quot; dog days, the worst is like the chocolate you use in baking. The big bars of unsweetened or whatever you can get at the store. I'm thinking it has a higher concentration of whatever. Lots cheaper than some of the other &quot;methods&quot;, and they just love it.
--Randy

 

[VTBigBear]

from what i heard if your dog eats chocolate.
it will get stones in its stomach..
so i think the problem is long term

 

[Bleeding Jawa]

One of my dogs got into the garbage &amp; ate half of a chocolate cake. My wife called the vet who had her feed the dog peroxide &amp; said it would make him throw up.