PSA: Raisins are toxic to dogs

[emily_in_nc]

divingbiker,

Will be sending healing thoughts Sammy's way -- hope he'll make a full recovery, but I know how stressful and scary these kinds of things are.

I feel bad because for several years I had no idea that raisins were toxic to dogs, and fed our first Boston Terrier, Pepper, her phenobarbital dose twice daily hidden in a raisin. I wonder if the two raisins a day she got for several years until I was alerted by a caring friend to their toxicity might have contributed to her demise -- she had kidney problems and incontinence later in life, but still lived til 3 months shy of her 15th birthday.

So sorry for your loss of AJ, too. What a horrible week you're having. Please keep this thread updated about Sammy....

[lph]

Yoicks! Best of luck to Sammy and may you have some peaceful days soon!

This was an eye-opener, 'cause I just discovered twenty minutes ago that Lyra likes chocolate... she had jumped on the table and pinched a square, and was headed outside in a hurry. (She's not a very savvy chocolate eater, though, so she got most of the square stuck up in the roof of her mouth between her teeth and was quite stressed and put out by the time I caught her and prised her mouth open to help work it out... )
So I did the math for cats from one of those links above, and came up with that 2 small squares (about an inch across?) of milk chocolate could give mild symptoms, and 4-5 squares could give severe symptoms.
I'll have to keep a close eye on the chocolate from now on, and not just because of longfingered youngsters.

[JennK13]

Out of curiosity, what symtoms did Sammy exhibit after eating the raisins?

Our golden retriever ate an ENTIRE chocolate cake off the counter while we were out. She's 65 lbs. I looked online and called the vet (Like you, I had been at the vet the day before to put my 17 year old cat down), and I did not want to have to go back to the vet. What they told me was that, while chocolate is toxic to dogs, it's not necessarily the chocolate that would make her sick. The SUGAR from eating an entire cake was far worse for her and could cause her to go into pancreatic shock. Since I didn't want to go back to the vet, I told them I saw I could enduce vomitting with H2O2 and asked how much to give her. I had a large, plastic "syringe" from a bar (some sort of shot came in it), and I pulled up about 1/2 cup of peroxide and shot it in the back of her throat to make sure she got it down. It didn't take long! Not 5 minutes later she was threw up CHUNCKS of the cake - I literally could have arranged the pieces back into the original cake!!! She doesn't really chew anything and just bit off pieces small enough for her to swallow whole (about the size of a fist each). We just kept an eye on her and she was fine - no stomach or anything; but we were fortunate enough to catch it in less that 2 hours after ingestion and were able to get her to vomit.

Unfortunately, she will eat anything, and the kitten thinks it's funny to watch her and knocks stuff off the counter for her to get (so now we have to keep it in the pantry and cabinets). She ate about a dozen chocolate chip cookies once without any issues (that amount of chocolate wasn't enough for a dog her size), but after the cake and knowing about how sugar can affect them, we probably should have done something then, too.

[lunacycles]

The H2O2 advice is good. My dog, as brilliant as she usually is, ate her own LEASH when she was in the back of the car, apparently in frustration that I had "contained" her when there were guests in the back seat. The H2O2 (I was told, about a tbsp the first time, if it doesn't work, can repeat one more time without harm...) caused her to throw it up quickly, and that literally saved her from a seriously invasive procedure.

Thanks for the links to the lists. I have a friend who insists almonds are fine (and good for) dogs, but I read online abt someone's dog eating a lot of almonds and then developing pancreatitis (due to high fat content). I have always heard raw eggs are good for dogs, so that is interesting.

My previous dog (lived to 16, aka the garbage disposal), a border collie/lab mix, ate at least 3 full sticks of butter (left to warm! sudden dexterity from a dog who otherwise couldn't reach the counter) over her life time, and a whole bag of chocolate Halloween candy, and was somehow no worse for the wear... She did develop some rather impressive lipomas on her belly which were named "stick of butter 1" and "stick of butter 2." She ended up dying after she fell down a couple of steps when she was really handicapped already from arthritis (she got out of my sight for just that instant...) and couldn't ever get her legs okay underneath her after that. Her kidneys failed her within a week.

So, point being, don't get too worried. A lot of dogs can be very resilient!

[OakLeaf]

I've read that it's very individual to the dog, and that even within breeds they can have different reactions. When I was a kid they used to make dog treats out of chocolate.

[pfunk12]

So sorry to hear about AJ and Sammy, DB. I hope that you've already received good news about him.

[Possegal]

I'm so sorry about your pup, and it must be horrible to be away from him right now. And sorry about the loss of your other dog. Sending healing vibes to you both.

[divingbiker]

Out of curiosity, what symtoms did Sammy exhibit after eating the raisins?

He hasn't had any symptoms. My guess is he had either a guilty or self-satisfied look when he was caught, and that and the chewed up raisin box were the only indications of trouble.

The kidney failure shows up 48-72 hours after ingesting the raisins. I just talked to the vet, and his blood work today showed perfect kidney function, so hopefully it will be the same tomorrow and tomorrow night he can come home. He said that since the pet sitter and my vet got on top of it right away, the odds are much greater that he'll be fine.

The reason to treat so aggressively is the variability from dog to dog that someone mentioned. I had a dog that ate a whole Christmas stocking full of Hersheys kisses that my roommate had put out for her boyfriend. Nothing but a trail of foil wrappers was left. She was just fine.

Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone. This has been a helluva week, but hopefully it will get better and he'll be home with me tomorrow.

Here's a picture of a pooped out Sammy after his first visit to the dog park Thursday afternoon.

[Dogmama]

So glad that Sammy is getting better! What a scare! One time, my German Shepherd counter-surfed & got the cat's food - unfortunately it was in a glass dish. I came home to shattered glass & no kitty kibbles. Off to the emergency vet who told us they can't see glass on an x-ray but he didn't seem uncomfortable when they palpated his abdomen. He turned out to be OK & kitty now eats out of plastic.

Pancreatic problems are often seen after Thanksgiving when people let their dogs lick up the fat-laden roasting pan or give Fido the fat parts that nobody eats.

[Aggie_Ama]

Hope he heals up with no lasting effects of his little binge.

My dog ate a whole Kit Kat, wrapper and all, we had to get the vet to induce vomiting. She also got into chocolate icing once, the on-call vet at A&M said baker's chocolate is worst. She was okay with a small lick of chocolate. I have heard milk chocolate is the worst, baker's is the worst, dark is the worst. So if it is chocolate I will call my vet, no use chancing it. She is so quick to grab a dropped item I hate having grapes in the house, luckily onions she walks away from.

[smilingcat]

dogs can't process theobromine in the cocoa, starting ingredient of chocolate. See wiki for more information. Higher the cocoa content of chocolate higher the content of theobromine.

Sooo... Dark chocolate 82% pure cocoa would have more theobromine than a 60% dark chocolate in turn has more theobromine than a milk chocolate. Most white chocolate really isn't chocolate so doesn't count.

Regardless, its not good idea to feed your dogs chocolate, raisins, grape... And dogs being an omnivore like human have sweet tooth. Cats are strict carnivore and do not have the sweet receptor, no sweet tooth. Cats are less likely to indulge in chocolate.

you should not feed your cat any chocolate, raisin, or grape either.

[Roadtrip]

BTW: Dark chocolate is much worse then milk chocolate too. Just something to keep in mind.

Shannon