How to Treat Dogs Ingesting Chocolate

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This article was co-written by Pippa Elliott, MRCVS. Dr. Elliott is a veterinarian with over thirty years of experience. She graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1987 and worked as a veterinary surgeon for 7 years. Then, Dr. Elliott worked as a veterinarian in a clinic for over a decade.

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Chocolate is toxic to dogs. Chocolate contains the chemical theobromine, which can increase your dog’s heart rate, increase blood pressure, and even convulse. ^{[1] X Research Source} Dogs that have eaten chocolate should be treated immediately. Dogs will be in great danger if they eat a lot of chocolate and delay the treatment time.

Table of Contents

Seek help from a veterinarian

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Assess the type and amount of chocolate your dog eats. You need to provide as much information as possible regarding chocolate and how much your dog ate when you call your veterinarian. Your doctor will give you the best advice after being given the information.

Pastry chocolate is unique to dogs. Second is milk chocolate. Medium-sweet and dark chocolate are also toxic to dogs. Approximately 0.5 kg of chocolate contains 9 mg -18 mg of the toxin theobromine. On average, 28 g of pastry chocolate contains about 390 mg of the toxin theobromine, medium chocolate contains 150 mg and milk chocolate contains 44 mg. ^{[2] X Research Source}

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Call your veterinarian immediately for advice. Your veterinarian will tell you what to do next, whether to take your dog to the vet or take some steps to help your dog treat it at home.

Small amounts of chocolate can only cause diarrhea and stomach upset in dogs. However, it’s best to contact your veterinarian regardless of how much or how little chocolate your dog eats because the response to chocolate poisoning in dogs often varies.

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Take your dog to the vet clinic as ordered by the doctor. Only a veterinary clinic is equipped with the knowledge, staff, medicine and equipment to treat dog chocolate overdose.

Your veterinarian may give your dog an emetic if he eats chocolate within an hour.
In some cases, you may need to take your dog to the hospital overnight and get emergency treatment within 24 hours.

Induce vomiting for dogs

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Try to induce vomiting according to your veterinarian’s advice. The dog should only be forced to vomit if the dog has eaten chocolate within 1 hour and has not shown any neurological symptoms (tremors). Care should be taken as forcing a dog to vomit can be fatal.

Dogs should be given 1 teaspoon of hydrogen peroxide (3%). Mix hydrogen peroxide with water in the ratio 50:50. Using a hydrogen peroxide spatula for your dog can spill the entire solution, so it’s a good idea to spray the solution directly into your dog’s mouth using the handy syringe that’s included in the first aid kit.

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Monitor the dog for about 15 minutes. The dog should be taken outside and closely monitored. Dogs need to be brought to a location where they can comfortably vomit.

If peroxide doesn’t cause vomiting after 15 minutes, give your dog another dose and wait.

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Do not give your dog too much peroxide. If your dog is still not vomiting after 30 minutes, you should stop giving the dog peroxide. Consuming too much peroxide can be harmful to dogs.

Consuming hydrogen peroxide, even a single dose, can lead to a number of side effects. Side effects of hydrogen peroxide are mild to severe stomach pain, irritation, and inflammation of the esophagus. If the lungs are exposed to hydrogen peroxide, the dog can die. Even dogs and dogs run the risk of forming bubbles in their blood (also potentially fatal) if they consume a lot of hydrogen peroxide. ^{[3] X Plumb Research Source , Donald C.; Plumb’s Veterinary Drug Handbook: 7th (seventh) Ed.; Wiley-Blackwell. 2011}

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Give your dog activated charcoal as a last resort. Activated charcoal can prevent the intestines from absorbing toxins from chocolate. The usual dose is 1 g of charcoal powder with 5 ml (1 teaspoon) of water per 1 kg of dog weight.

This is a last resort attempt before taking your dog to the vet clinic. However, you should only give your dog activated charcoal when advised by your veterinarian.
Activated charcoal should not be given to a dog that is vomiting, shivering, or convulsing. Inhaling activated charcoal can also lead to death in a dog’s lungs.
Without a gastric lavage, it will be very difficult for you to get a large amount of activated charcoal into your dog’s body. Not only that, you need to continuously give your dog activated charcoal after 4-6 hours and for 2-3 days. Note that dogs may experience constipation or black stools after using activated charcoal.
In addition, a serious side effect of activated charcoal is an increase in blood sodium levels and leads to tremors and convulsions. ^{[4] X Plumb Research Source , Donald C.; Plumb’s Veterinary Drug Handbook: 7th (seventh) Ed.; Wiley-Blackwell. 2011} These symptoms are similar to the neurological problems caused by chocolate poisoning.
You should be careful when giving your dog activated charcoal to avoid permanently blackening fabrics, carpets, plastics, and paint.
If your dog refuses to eat activated charcoal, you can mix the charcoal with some canned food, then pump it into your dog’s mouth if needed. However, this approach is not recommended because it increases the risk of lung exposure to coal.
Avoid continuous use of charcoal with Sorbitp because it can increase the risk of diarrhea, dehydration and more serious complications for the dog.

Advice

You should buy insurance for your dog in case of an emergency. Today, there are many pet health insurance companies. Therefore, you should research and plan to buy dog insurance. Some insurances only cover emergencies. In addition, many insurance packages are available and can cover “everyday” pet accidents. Regardless of the type of insurance, you can still save money for pet care in case of need, especially emergencies.
It is advisable to keep ready as well as constantly renewing the first aid box for pets. You should prepare (not limited to) basic tools such as an oral syringe or a spray for cleaning the wound, gauze to clean the wound or stop bleeding, iodine solution to disinfect the wound, tweezers, scissors , chain, muzzle, white medical tape, cotton and hydrogen peroxide.
If you have small children at home, check their room for chocolate bars scattered around.

Warning

You may not be able to afford to treat your dog yourself. In that case, you should call your vet right away.
Consuming a lot of hydrogen peroxide can be harmful to dogs. It’s best to only give your dog hydrogen peroxide as recommended by your veterinarian.
Do not give your dog chocolate again, even if the dog does not show symptoms of poisoning. The effect of each type of chocolate on dogs is different. So you shouldn’t take the risk. Chocolate should be kept out of reach of dogs.
ABSOLUTELY DO NOT give your dog any chocolate, no matter how much or how little. You can’t know for sure how harmful chocolate can be to dogs. Even if chocolate doesn’t have much of an effect on your dog, you shouldn’t teach your dog to treat chocolate as a delicious snack to encourage curiosity and seek out chocolate.
The fat in chocolate can cause vomiting and diarrhea in dogs, even if the dog is not poisoned with theobromine. In addition, eating chocolate can also lead to pancreatitis (due to the fat content). Dogs with pancreatitis can clear up on their own with a bland diet (fat-free cottage cheese and white rice) for a few days or hospitalization in severe cases. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

Steps

Seek help from a veterinarian

Induce vomiting for dogs

Advice

Warning

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