If you are reading this article with hope that scientific research has shown that there is nothing wrong to share your Snickers with your beloved dog, guess again… Chocolate contains the alkaloid “theobromine” which is in the group of mythylxanine, same as the caffeine. It is a type of stimulant that affect on the nervous system, cardiovascular system and increases the blood pressure.
Unlike humans, dogs cannot process theobromine as fast as humans can, which may lead to unwanted issues with your dog’s health. The specific side effects of high percent in dog’s digestive system are vomiting, diarrhea, muscle twitching, whining, dehydration, seizures and rapid heart beat. Some of this effects, especially the rapid heart beat could be fatal for your dog. On the other hand, death is something that doesn’t occur that often.
If you are asking, how much chocolate is poisonous for my dog, the answer is not that simple. The amount of theobromine varies with the type of chocolate. The bitter the chocolate, the bigger danger is to our dogs.
Unsweetened baking chocolate has high concentration and contains 130 mg. of theobromine per 30 g. of chocolate, while the common milk chocolate contains only 44 mg. per 30 g. White chocolate doesn’t contains theobromine, but that doesn’t mean that it is safe for dogs, because the amount of sugar could present a issue for the dog’s health.
In order to simplify, if a dog’s weight is 20 kg. it needs to consume 20 g. of baker’s chocolate or 180 g. of common milk chocolate to show some signs of poisoning. Clinical symptoms usually will take hours or even days to develop, but once when they do, they can last for days.
If you are suspecting that your dog has been poisoned by chocolate, you should contact your veterinarian, because there is not much that you could done for your dog while home.
