Chocolate Toxicity

I posted this on my blog a few months ago, actually for valentines day but thought it would be prudent to post as a reminder with Easter Candy a plenty. **Click on the image below to view the calculator.

With Valentines Day right around the corner, shopping carts are being loaded full of chocolate sweets for their Sweeties. With all the “love in the air” we can sometimes forget how toxic chocolate is to our furry valentine pals. Chocolate is a doggy no no folks! Even a few morsels can be life threatening to your dog. This handy calculator will tell you how much theobromine and caffeine your dog ingested and what types of symptoms to expect. The calculator will also indicate whether an emergency visit to the veterinarian is recommended. **This is only a recommendation, common sense and your veterinarian should be consulted as general health, age and prior health conditions a vital for the survival of your dog in the event of accidental chocolate ingestion.


When a dog eats chocolate, it is possible that the dog can get very sick and need to see the vet! Sometimes, however, depending on the type of chocolate, the amount eaten and the size of the dog, only mild symptoms are seen. As a vet I have seen many dogs get sick from eating chocolate. Some of them have had vomiting and diarrhea, but some have had more serious symptoms like tremors, seizures and even coma.

Chocolate contains two substances that are toxic to dogs: theobromine and caffeine. Dogs metabolize these items much slower than people do.

Both theobromine and caffeine are stimulants to the central nervous system. If too much chocolate is ingested then the increased stimulus to the central nervous system can cause an increase in blood pressure and irregular heart rhythms and possibly even death!

courtesy of Its the Dogs Life (dot) com

We should keep chocolates at safe places like our tummy. We should never let our dogs eat them.