RP301 The Sweetest Poison

 RP301 The Sweetest Poison

When it comes to chocolate addictions, dogs are no different from humans. They love the sweet and delicious taste. But did you know that chocolate can be a death sentence for man's best friend?
Chocolate contains caffeine and theobromine. These two ingredients are why it's almost impossible to fall asleep if you eat a candy bar before bedtime. Although they can make our hearts race, they aren't particularly harmful to us. A person would have to eat a lot of chocolate before he or she got seriously sick.
Dogs on the other hand are a completely different story. Their bodies cannot metabolize theobromine as quickly as we can. This means that it stays in their system for a very long time. While our chocolate buzz lasts for about 20 to 40 minutes, theobromine can remain in a dog's system for days.
The symptoms of chocolate poisoning are very serious. Early symptoms include vomiting, excessive urination, and the inability to sit still. As the theobromine continues to be absorbed into the dog's bloodstream, more serious symptoms begin to appear. These include dizziness, muscle twitching, and seizures. If the dog doesn't get to a veterinarian quickly, it could fall into a coma and eventually die.
Obviously, all chocolate is toxic to dogs. However, some types of chocolate are more dangerous than others. White chocolate has very low levels of theobromine. A 20-pound dog would have to eat 55 pounds of it to cause serious symptoms. Baking chocolate on the other hand is far more toxic. It only takes two ounces of baking chocolate to cause serious symptoms in a 20-pound dog. Generally speaking, the darker the chocolate, the more dangerous it is for dogs to eat.
You would think that dogs would stay away from something so harmful, but that is not the case. Dogs love eating chocolate as much as we do. They don't seem to care too much about the pain and suffering that come afterward. That's why it's extremely important to make sure that your dog never eats even the smallest amount of chocolate. It doesn't take much for it to develop a taste for chocolate.
Dogs can have serious reactions to chocolate.