Ok I popped out for an hour.... my mum was watching the dogs, fell asleep with a box of chocolates on her lap - they were gone when I came back about an hour later.

I force fed the dogs salt water which was not effective. Came and looked on here and saw the peroxide remedy - did that and both dogs have been sick.

Rang the vet but there's no answer on the emergency phone number - rang the only other vet in the area and he won't see new dogs on new years.

Is there anything else I can do?

Could you tell if they vomited up the chocolate?

It looks like it... lots of brown chunks

Wish I could help. Hopefully Connie will see this.

Usually you have to induce the vomiting pretty quickly after their ingesting something unwanted to get it all up.

Never had experience with chocolate.

I hope everything will be ok.

Tanith, you are probably fine - you got to it quickly and see good evidence that it was not digested. From what I'm reading on the search info, I think you are safe.

they seem ok, i'm gonna keep an eye on them... bloody vet

I only had peroxide because i brought some back from the states on my last trip.

Just a question, is chocolate really that serious? My 3 ate a box and seemed fine, found out to late to do anything about it, was I lucky?? they never ever get it normally just the postie left a box inside the back gate. Curious in case it ever happens again.
Hope your dogs are fine!

How big are the dogs and how much of what type of chocolate are all things to think about. Most of the time a fair sized dog is not gonna get enough 'candy' to get toxic. If it were bakers or semisweet it can be worse. If it were a toy breed I would worry.

Usually it is like an ounce per pound of body weight with bakers chocolate.
See two posts down

Edited by Connie Sutherland (12/31/2010 07:26 PM)
Edit reason: warning

"how much of what type of chocolate"

'Zackly.

http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=134&Number=305869&Searchpage=1&Main=28230&Words=chocolate+Connie+Sutherland&topic=0&Search=true#Post305865

"And to readers, don't forget that dark and milk chocolate are VERY different in theobromine content ... depending on where the dark chocolate (which this was) falls between milk chocolate (with 44 - 60 mgs/ounce of chocolate) and unsweetened baking (with 450 mg/ounce of chocolate), it can be fairly innocuous or it can be fatal."

and

"This is the point I was trying to make too, and it's worth repeating: MILK chocolate is almost another thing.

Unsweetened baking chocolate has about TEN TIMES the theobromine (the alkaloid that causes the trouble) of milk chocolate, and semi- and bittersweet and dark all fall somewhere in between. For example, the 70-80% darks that some of us have mentioned here (longingly) would be way over in the danger side on that line between milk and baking.

This doesn't mean we should ever give dogs any chocolate at all. It does probably mean that we need to understand when we must get the dog to the vet asap."

 Quote: Sonya Gilmore

Usually it is like an ounce per pound of body weight with bakers chocolate.

No no. That's off by an entire decimal point.

A TENTH of an ounce per pound of dog (of baking chocolate -- the most dangerous by far) is enough to cause poisoning (the extent of which is largely dictated by the health, age, and even stomach contents of the dog).

Two one-ounce squares of baking chocolate would be toxic to a 20-pound dog; one ounce for a 10-pound dog. NOT one ounce per pound; one-tenth of an ounce per pound. Not 20 ounces for a 20-pound dog -- 2 ounces.

MILK chocolate might be (probably is) about an ounce per pound of dog weight. I'll get some numbers.


I'm not pounding on you, Sonya, for what was probably a typo .... just saying that this could be a fatal misconception.



eta
Some numbers I had on the 'fridge door:

Milk chocolate: 1 ounce per pound of body weight. Approximately one pound of milk chocolate is poisonous to a 20-pound dog.

Baking chocolate: 0.1 ounce per pound body weight (ten times as toxic as milk).

Sweet cocoa: 0.3 ounces per pound of body weight. One-third of a pound of sweet cocoa is toxic to a 20-pound dog.

Dark chocolates depend on how dark (how close to either baker's or milk).


Edited by Connie Sutherland (12/31/2010 07:38 PM)
Edit reason: eta