Hot Chocolate!

It's one of the most common toxicity emergency calls we get -- "My dog ate chocolate!" But rarely does the pooch eat high quality chocolate or a large enough quantity for it to be a problem. The primary toxic ingredients in the best chocolates are high levels of theobromine and caffeine, which can cause vomiting, diarrhea, heart palpitations and arrhythmia, tremors, seizures and even death.  Unsweetened cocoa and baking chocolates are the worst kitchen culprits with a few ounces being toxic for 40-lb dog. However, I've met plenty of huge hounds who inhaled bags of less toxic milk chocolate (foil wrappers and all) resulting in agitation and vomiting.

Late last week, we got the standard "my dog ate chocolate" call about a 10-year-old dog who knew how to open the pantry cabinets. Besides eating 14 bars of high-quality dark chocolate (what a waste!) Zuni shredded and nibbled jello boxes, bouillon cubes and various other items. Based on Zuni's weight and the amount and type of chocolate ingested, we quickly determined this was a real problem! At our instructions the owners administered hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting, but Zuni didn't produce anything until the car ride into the clinic. The few small piles of vomit smelled purely of rich warm chocolate.

Zuni's examination fortunately was fairly normal aside from a bloated appearance, some trembling which we determined was due to nervousness and a mild heart murmur of which we have yet to determine the significance. We decided to induce vomiting again since Zuni's stomach was still quite distended. The more chocolate we can get out within two hours of ingestion the less toxicity we will have.

Dr. Kim Everson walking a chocolate-eating
dog outside with piles of steaming hot
chocolate vomit visible in the snow.

Rather than repeat hydrogen peroxide, we administered a more potent emetic -- a derivative of morphine -- into the corner of Zuni's eye. (Weird, I know.) Within 10 minutes, Zuni looked pretty unhappy, drooling and swallowing hard with nausea. We rinsed the medication from her eye and applied eye drops to soothe the redness. I took her outside for a little jog to jiggle her stomach contents and Eureka! Zuni produced one large pile of steaming hot chocolate after another, five prodigious piles in total scattered in the January snow.

Once it was clear that her stomach was finally empty, we returned to the examination room crowing with victory. (Well, I was crowing. Poor Zuni felt pretty miserable, her joy in devouring a cabinet full of groceries finally subdued.) Our decontamination task was not yet complete, however. Next we administered activated charcoal to bind up the theobromine and caffeine still in her GI tract. The owners were instructed to repeat this at home every couple of hours throughout the night and into the next day.

The owners were also advised to monitor for neurological symptoms but especially diarrhea in the coming days. Any residual wrappers are expected to wad up and pass in her stool, but they will likely cause a lot of scraping and scratching inside. A daily probiotic supplement was suggested for the next couple of days, at least, to help her gut heal. We will also be evaluating Zuni again in the near future to determine if the heart murmur has resolved or requires a further work up.

Dogs eat a ton of stuff that really isn't very good for them, and usually they emerge from the experience relatively unscathed. In the kitchen, care should be taken to keep chocolate, grapes and raisins, macadamia nuts, onions and garlic, moldy food, uncooked potatoes, bread dough and xylitol artificial sweeteners (found in chewing gum, for example) way out of their reach! If your pet does eat any of these things, call your veterinarian for advice. The dietary indiscretion might turn out to be no big deal, but a simple phone call could save your pet's life.

No Chocolate Bunnies (or Mulch) for Fido

This week I met an adorable Pit Bull mix puppy whose dining habits were making her owner nervous. "Oh, Minnie just loves to eat decaying fish," the owner lamented and she went on to list some of the other weird and disgusting items on which her puppy enjoyed chewing. Minnie's self-selected treats are mostly harmless, but the owner stopped up short when she came to cocoa bean mulch. "And I just heard that cocoa bean mulch is toxic to dogs!" she exclaimed, reminding me that this is a timely blog topic.

With the "winter that wasn't" officially over, people are tending to their lawns and gardens. Some may consider using cocoa bean mulch as a natural fertilizer. Made from spent cocoa beans used in chocolate production, cocoa bean mulch is organic, deters slugs and snails, and gives a garden an appealing chocolate smell. However, it also may attract dogs,* who can be poisoned by eating too much of the mulch.

Like chocolate, a well known no-no for pets, cocoa beans contain the stimulants caffeine and theobromine. Dogs are highly sensitive to these chemicals, called methylxanthines. Low doses of methylxanthine can cause mild gastrointestinal upset such as vomiting, diarrhea, or abdominal pain. Higher doses can cause rapid heart rate, muscle tremors, seizures, and even death.

Cocoa mulch has a higher concentration of toxic chemicals per ounce than milk chocolate. As an example, a 50-pound dog can experience serious side effects from eating more than 5 ounces of mulch. Whether cocoa mulch or chocolate, the severity of toxicity is related to the size of the dog and the amount of mulch eaten. Fortunately, to date, no fatal cases of cocoa mulch toxicity have been reported to the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)Animal Poison Control Center.


If you suspect that your dog has eaten cocoa bean mulch, contact your veterinarian right away. Treatment will depend on how much cocoa bean mulch your dog has eaten, when it was eaten, and whether your dog is sick. Recommended care may include placing your dog under veterinary observation, inducing vomiting, and controlling a rapid heartbeat or seizures with medications and supportive care.

*Although dogs are most likely to chomp on cocoa mulch, cats, rabbits and other pets should not be allowed to nibble this particular mulch either.