IS CHOCOLATE DANGEROUS FOR DOGS?
Yes, Chocolate is Toxic to Dogs!
Be vigilant this Easter and keep your dog away from chocolate. At Easter time we are all knee deep in chocolate, it’s not only bad for our waistlines but is harmful for our doggies. Chocolate contains theobromine, a stimulant like caffeine, which can cause vomiting, increased heart rate, agitation and seizures in dogs.
Chocolate is highly toxic to dogs, the darker the chocolate the more toxic it is. Cooking chocolate and dark chocolate are very toxic due to the high levels of cacao. White chocolate is not very toxic at all as the cacao in white chocolate is very low.
If your dog accidently does ingest chocolate and experiences any of the symptoms we mention, call your vet and try to give them an idea of much he or she has eaten.
You can find a link here to give you an idea of the amount of chocolate that might be toxic from Vets Now...
Use the Dog Choc Calculator here
The darker the chocolate the more fatal it can be to your dog.
The amount of theobromine that is fatal for dogs is given as between 100 and 250 mg per kg of the dog’s bodyweight. So if your dog weights only 10kg, as little as 60-70 grams of cooking chocolate could be fatal. This is not very much chocolate! With milk chocolate, the same dog would need to eat around 150 grams.
White chocolate contains very little theobromine, and toxicity is unlikely, but if your dog eats a lot of it there may still be signs of gastrointestinal upset.