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“Trick or Treat” with Chocolate Toxicity

Black Labrador Retriever with a red collar sitting down on the ground

Chocolate contains the toxin Methylxanthines which cause a number of clinical signs in our pets: vomiting, diarrhea, excessive thirst and urination, hyperactivity, tremors, seizures, and even death.

Dark chocolate is more toxic to our pets than milk or white chocolate.

For Mason, we knew the time he ate the chocolate and the amount of chocolate he had ingested. This gives our doctors a better idea of how to treat our patient’s with chocolate

Since we found that he had eaten enough of the chocolate and type of chocolate for a moderate toxicity, we performed the following treatments:

Induced vomiting to get as much of the chocolate out of the stomach where is could not be taken up into the blood stream and processed throughout the body.

We gave activated charcoal to soak up and bind to the chocolate that was left in his stomach after he vomited.

He was placed on intravenous fluids during the day to help flush out his system.

If you know or suspect that your pet has ingested some chocolate, call your regular veterinarian and go to the clinic for treatment as there is no antidote for chocolate toxicity.

Remember when you are coming back from Trick or Treating this Halloween, please keep your candy out of the reach of your pets! They also have a sweet tooth.