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Leave Chocolate Out of Rover's Celebrations

FDA cannot give veterinary medical advice. If your pet is sick or has a veterinary emergency, call your veterinarian. If your veterinarian is unavailable, call your local emergency animal hospital or an animal poison control center. For more information, see Who Do You Call if You Have a Pet Emergency? 

Holidays and chocolate seem to go together. For birthdays, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, and Christmas - chocolate is everywhere. But, there is one place chocolate should never be, and that's in your dog. Chocolate is toxic to dogs. 

Here are the facts:

Chocolate is made from cocoa, which naturally contains two compounds that are toxic to dogs, theobromine and caffeine. Both compounds are stimulants, acting on the nervous system and heart. (If you’ve ever had the shakes or a fast heart rate after drinking too much caffeinated soda or coffee, you’ve experienced this effect.) People can metabolize (break down) theobromine and caffeine in their body fairly quickly, so the side effects don’t last very long. Dogs, on the other hand, can’t break down these compounds as quickly, so the side effects last longer. Chocolate contains more theobromine than caffeine; it’s the theobromine that’s the main culprit in chocolate toxicity in dogs. 

Several things can play a role in whether your dog will develop chocolate toxicity, including the amount and type of chocolate your dog ate, your dog's size, and how sensitive your dog is to theobromine. The amount of theobromine varies depending on the type of chocolate—the darker the chocolate, the higher the cocoa content, and therefore, the more theobromine the chocolate contains. 

Type of chocolate Approximate amount of theobromine in 1 ounce (mg)
Milk chocolate 57
Semisweet chocolate chips 136
Dark chocolate with 70-85% cacao 227
Unsweetened baking chocolate 364

Signs of chocolate toxicity:

Signs of chocolate toxicity can appear within a few hours of a dog eating the chocolate and can range from mild to severe, including:

  • Vomiting
  • Diarrhea
  • Rapid heart rate
  • Restlessness
  • Hyperactivity
  • Urinating more or drinking more water
  • Muscle spasms
  • Seizures

Severe chocolate toxicity can lead to death in some cases. 

Because chocolate can contain a lot of fat and sugar, some dogs may also develop painful inflammation of the pancreas, called pancreatitis, after eating chocolate. 

Toxic Doses of Theobromine:

Theobromine can cause mild signs in dogs with doses as low as 9 mg per pound of body weight, and severe signs starting around 18 mg per pound of body weight. That means a large dog like a Labrador retriever may develop only mild signs after eating half a 12-ounce bag (6 ounces) of semisweet chocolate chips, while a small dog like a Chihuahua may develop severe signs after eating the same amount. Let’s do some math to better understand this:

Your black Lab, Whiskey, weighs 60 pounds, and your Chihuahua, Cutie-pie, weighs 6 pounds. Six ounces of semisweet chocolate chips contains 816 mg of theobromine (136 mg per ounce x 6 ounces). 

Whiskey’s dose of theobromine is 816 mg/60 pounds = 13.6 mg per pound of body weight. She would likely have only mild to moderate signs of chocolate toxicity. 

Cutie-pie’s dose of theobromine is 816 mg/6 pounds = 136 mg per pound of body weight. She would have severe signs of chocolate toxicity and possibly die without veterinary care. 

Keep Chocolate Away from Dogs!

While it’s nice for people to have chocolate for special occasions or as a treat, remember that chocolate is not so nice for dogs. Because chocolate can cause serious problems if dogs accidentally eat it, keep chocolate stored safely out of their reach.

  
 
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