Thursday, October 21, 2010

DOGS EAT ANYTHING: But should they?

DANGER to all dogs. . .

Recently I have been doing research on foods not good for our dogs, in fact some have the ability to kill them. We have probably all heard the warnings against chocolate as it is possibly the worst of the foods a dog can ingest. Some people have said they only give their petS sugar free candy. There is a substance in many sugar free items such as candy, gum and cookies called:
XYLITOL and it can be a recipe for disaster, why you ask, because for diabetics it is considered natural and safe unless your a dog, then it causes potentially fatal hypoglycemia. And if that weren't enough it can also cause deadly liver necrosis. Many veternarians believe their should be warning labels on anything containing Xylitol for dog owners...

GRAPES & RAISINS, as healthy as they are for we humans have killed dogs after only seven grapes due to kidney failure. Vets believe a yet unnamed toxin to which we are immune works to kill our pets. Raisens are even worse, being smaller there is a more concentrated amount of this mystery substance which is more dangerous. The symptons are vomiting, dairrhea and lethargy.

ONIONS & ONION POWDER, one onion ring won't kill but a bunch could. Onions contain disulfides which inside a dogs body destroy red blood cells. Onion powder, like raisins is even worse because all the harmless water is removed. The powder tends to build up and cause startling results like labored breathing, upset stomach and lethargy.
GARLIC, contains the same toxin but doesn't seem as dangerous for a reason yet unknown.

PITTED FRUITS, can cause serious choking in our pet but did you know that peach, plum, apricot, cherry, and persimmon pits all contain a cyanide derivative that builds up over time. So these delicious harmless fruits to us, are a serious danger to our pets.

TREE NUTS, especially Macadamias contain one or more unknown doggy neurotoxins that can result in weakness, stiffness, pain and severe shaking. All walnuts harbor a fungus deadly to dogs. Keep pets away from all nuts.

ANYTHING WITH CAFFEINE, most dog owners know to keep caffeine away from your pets or they could become all twitchey, have possible seizures, kind of like a person on meth.
CHOCOLATE is however ranked lower than some other substances mentioned here because it depends alot on the amount of chocolate ingested, the strength of the chocolate and weight/size of the dog. A 50 pound dog can tolerate 18 ounces of milk chocolate (usually?) 8 ounces of dark semi-sweetened or 2.6 ounces of baking or unsweetened chocolate, and 1.4 ounces of dry cocoa powder. If the dog weighs less than 15 pounds rush him to the vet if he eats anything besides milk chocolate. But if it's just one candy he should be okay, besides a few more trips potty!

FATTY FOODS, when your dogs beg for bacon and the fat trimmed from your steak, he's also begging for potential pancreatitis. Symptoms include vomiting, severe abdominal pain and shock.
These results can have a cumulative effect or result from a single fatty meal, and it can be fatal.

BONES & CORNCOBS, any vet worth his salt will say the same thing my mothers vet told her when she adopted a stray that had been hanging around her bakery for weeks. She took it to the vet for a check up asking him, "what kind of bones can I feed my dog?" The vet smiled, then looked sternly at her and said: "ELEPHANT BONES!!!" So mothers dog Champ never got any bones except doggy milk bones...




3 comments:

  1. Good information, Chatty, thanks for bringing this up. There are also many plants that are toxic do dogs (and cats). There is a good web site that lists toxic plants:
    http://www.sniksnak.com/plants-toxic.html
    There is also some other good information on this site regarding dog and cat health.

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  2. Thanks Ruth, any information we can get and give to people to protect pets is great!!!

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  3. My human has to watch carefully so I don't sling my grapes from my perch to the floor and Max eats one. Great info.

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