What should you buy your dog for Easter? Nothing if you are sane, but if you are not make sure you never buy chocolates (flowers are fine) for your pooch, because feeding chocolate to your pet could be fatal. Find out why dairy products are harmful for dogs in this article.
You may love nibbling away at chocolates, but your dog would have its life put at risk if it was to do the same. Dogs are in danger from chocolate and other dairy products.
Can chocolate really kill dogs?
Chocolate is the main danger for dogs, but really any milk based product should be avoided completely and form no part of your pet’s diet. The reason for this intolerance is due to one pesky ingredient, that just so happens to be one of the most important in chocolate, theobromine. This substance, which is similar to caffeine, can trigger problems in your dog and other domesticated animals because it raises the level of adrenalin.
Too much adrenaline in the system can cause cardio problems such as a dangerously high heart rate and irregular heartbeat. If your dog comes into significant contact with chocolate the least you can expect to happen are vomiting, diarrhoea, and a hyperactive dog and at worst seizures, coma, and death.
Of course knowing about this can help dog owners to keep their dogs away from this threat, and research has even found the amount of dosage needed to be fatal to your pet. 50mg per lb of bodyweight is enough theobromine to end your dogs life, and of course as dogs come in all different sizes the actual amount varies from breed to breed
What is the worst chocolate for your dog to find?
Dogs prefer cooking chocolate to milk chocolate and are able to eat a lot of it in one go, and it just so happens that theobromine is more prevalent in cooking chocolate. This is a problem for owners because even though chocolate is not good for the dogs system they actually enjoy eating it, and to your pet it is nothing other than a tasty treat.
This means that dog owners must be vigilant in how they store chocolate, and not leave it within access of their animals. Education on this subject is enough to ensure that a dog will never have access to chocolate, because if the owner does not award it as a treat, and keeps it out of reach then any problem is diverted. So even though this is a deadly issue for dogs it is one that is easily remedied by good owners.
Luckily avoiding getting your dog killed by theobromine is easily avoidable by just keeping the chocolate or dairy product in the cupboard or fridge. Unfortunately it is not the same with worms; they will not go in the cupboard, so why not try Heartgard Plus which is one of the best preventions from heartworm. Read More about the The Ultimate Guide To Heartworm In Pets
