Easter weekend is fast approaching, and this means houses full of delicious chocolate treats. And whilst these may be a treat for you, they are not a treat for your dogs!
Please try and keep chocolate out of reach of your dogs at all times! If guests bring gifts, don’t leave them lying around, pop them away safely straight away.
If your dog gets hold of chocolate over the bank holiday weekend you’ll be looking at a hefty out of hours vets bill!
What makes it so bad for dogs?
Chocolate contains a chemical called theobromine, which is poisonous to dogs.
Symptoms typically occur between four and 24 hours after your dog has eaten chocolate, though assessment and treatment may be required immediately.
Chocolate Toxicity Calculator
I use this calculator to work out (roughly) if you need a vets visit or not.
There are a few factors to remember:
Cocoa powder and cooking chocolate the worst chocolate based products your dog could consume
Dark chocolate is worse than milk chocolate, which is worse than white chocolate
For example, a medium sized dog would experience mild symptoms when consuming 100-150g of milk chocolate, but would only need to consume 13-20g of cooking chocolate to experience the same symptoms.
You will need to know the following information to be able to determine whether you need a vet visit or not:
What chocolate your dog has eaten
How much chocolate (in grams) your dog has eaten
How much your dog weights (in kg), a rough estimate is fine but always underestimate if possible
Prevention is better than solution though, so please be mindful this Easter period, and keep your dogs safe!
