Can a dog die From Eating Chocolate?

Most recent answer: 01/31/2015

Q:
Can a dog die from eating chocolate?
- lily (age 4)
Greenville,SC USA
A:

Yes, unfortunately it can in the extreme cases. There are multiple reasons behind this.

There is something very harmful to dogs in chocolate: it contains compunds called theobromine and caffeine, which are quite toxic. Of course the severity and the type of the negative effect will depend on the ingested amount of chocolate; but also on the breed of the dog. To give some quantitative idea, the Merck Manual () cites LD50 around 100 mg/kg for these substances and depending on the type chocolate contains about 10 mg/g theobromine.

 From the junk food perspective, refined sugar is not a natural nutritional component of some mammalian diets. Shortly after ingestion, the blood glucose levels increase rapidly. Sugar can also be toxic to you, but your body can tolerate this a bit with the help of two pancreatic enzymes: insulin and glucagon. Not feeding on fruits, dogs hormonal system is less effective in suppressing the glucose surge. Dietary junk food is not safe either: to reduce the calory input, xylitol is a commanly used sugar substitute and it is quite toxic to dogs.

Tunc

(Here's a nice discussion of the effects of theobromine and other chocolate components on dogs: .)


(published on 01/31/2015)