How to Diagnose Dog Chocolate Symptoms

How to Diagnose Dog Chocolate Symptoms

Chocolate contains theobromine, a naturally occurring stimulant found in the cocoa bean; theobromine increases urination and affects the central nervous system as well as heart muscle. While amounts vary by type of chocolate, it’s the theobromine that is poisonous to dogs. The danger from chocolate consumption vary on the size and health of your dog, quantity of theobromine eaten, and sensitivity to poison substances which is different for each type of dog.

 Chocolate contains theobromine, a naturally occurring stimulant found in the cocoa bean; theobromine increases urination and affects the central nervous system as well as heart muscle. While amounts vary by type of chocolate, it’s the theobromine that is poisonous to dogs. The danger from chocolate consumption vary on the size and health of your dog, quantity of theobromine eaten, and sensitivity to poison substances which is different for each type of dog.

Do not ever give your pet a taste of chocolate even though your dog can eat small amount of chocolate without showing any signs or symptoms of illness because she/he will be addictive to theobromine and will try to eat more at every possible opportunity.

 The symptoms of theobromide poisoning are numerous and they appear within a few hours or up to a day after the chocolate ingestion. Chocolate stays in the animal’s stomach a long time. As the theobromide is absorbed into the bloodstream, the animal can exhibit the following symptoms:

1) Vomiting

2) Diarrhea

3) Diuresis (Urinary incontinence)

4) Hyperactivity

5) Rapid breathing/heartbeat

6) Muscle tremors

7) Seizures

8) Coma

Be prepared by having on hand the tools you might need. The first-aid treatment for chocolate poisoning involves removing it from the body, quickly, before too much time passes and the theobromine has circulated, damaging the gastrointestinal tract in the process. The treatment includes:

 inducing vomiting, which removes, and then administering

 activated charcoal slurry, which absorbs.

 

 The sooner this is done, the less the effects of the poison. That, in itself, explains the importance of dog owners having an emergency kit in their homes plus the knowledge for quick first-aid treatment.