Toxic Foods for Dogs

In our article ”What do I feed my dog now?” Katie and I had discussed what to buy for your dog. There have been lots of reports over poisonous ingredients that were/are being used to formulate certain brands of dog food. We didn’t name the brands but we told you our secret brand for a happy strong dog.

If you’ve read the article you’ll also remember Katie left us hanging with this line at the end “And remember, no chocolate, no onions, no raisins, no grapes, and one I just learned about is no avocados.” I wanted to know “why?” So…

In this article we will discuss the foods that we humans eat with relatively no consequences but can be harmful even deadly for your dog. Some of these will surprise you.

Alcohol: Ingestion can lead to sickness, urination problems or even coma or death from alcohol poisoning.

Anti-freeze: Although not a human food, it can be readily available for them in a car park puddle. It is sweet so if they find it, they will drink it. Even a small amount of antifreeze can be fatal. 3-4 tablespoons can kill a medium sized dog. The main ingredient in antifreeze is ethylene glycol, an extremely toxic poison that causes kidney failure, which is often fatal in just a few days.

Apple: The seeds contain cyanogenic glycosides, which can result in cyanide poisoning. Any seed or pit from a fruit is dangerous.

Apricot: Same as the apple.

Avocado: Avocadoes are high in fat content and can trigger an upset stomach, vomiting or even pancreatitis. Avocado contains a toxic element called persin, which can damage heart, lung and other tissue in many animals.

Baby Food: If it contains onion powder then it is not good. See onions for more explanations.

Bones: Cooked bones can be very hazardous for your dog. They become brittle and can splinter causing your dog to choke or worst, puncture, rupture their stomach lining and intestinal tract. Bad bones are turkey and chicken legs, ham, pork chop and veal.

Bread Dough: Pets who have eaten bread dough may experience abdominal pain, bloat, vomiting, disorientation and depression. When bread dough is ingested your dog's body heat causes the dough to rise in the stomach. During the rising process alcohol is produced as the dough expands.

Candy: Sugarless candy containing xylitol has been recognized by the National Animal Poison Control Center (NAPCC) to be a risk to pets. The compound can cause liver damage.

Cherries: The seed pit contains cyanogenic glycosides which can cause cyanide poisoning.

Chocolate: Chocolate contains theobromine, a compound that is a cardiac stimulant and a diuretic. Theobromine will either increase the dog’s heart rate or may cause the heart to beat irregularly. Death is quite possible, especially with exercise.

Eggs (Raw): Raw egg whites contain a protein called avidin, which can deplete your dog of biotin, one of the B vitamins. Biotin is essential to your dog’s growth and coat health. Additionally, raw eggs are often contaminated with bacteria, such as salmonella, and you could end up giving your dog food poisoning in addition to biotin deficiency.

Grapes or Raisins: Although the minimum lethal dosage is not known, grapes and raisins can be toxic to dogs when ingested in large quantities. The symptoms are gastrointestinal signs including vomiting and diarrhea, and then signs of kidney failure with an onset of severe kidney signs starting about 24 hours after ingestion.

Liver: In small amounts liver is good for your dog, but if the liver intake is too high it can cause nutritional problems because liver has a high content of vitami
A. Consumption of this vitamin in large amounts can lead to vitami
A toxicity, or hypervitaminosis A. It could lead to bone problems.

Macadamia Nuts: The toxic compound is unknown but eating as few as six nuts without the shell has been known to cause elevated body temperature, accelerated heartbeat, tremors in the skeletal muscles, and weakness or paralysis of the hindquarters.

Onions: Onions cause hemolytic anemia. Red blood cells break down leaving the dog short of oxygen. Onion poisoning can occur with a single ingestion of large quantities or with repeated meals containing small amounts of onion.

Salmon (Raw): The cause is infection by a rickettsial organism called Neorickettsia helminthoeca. A sudden onset of symptoms occurs 5-7 days after ingestion of fish. Initial symptoms include lethargy and anorexia. Persistent vomiting by the fourth day. There is bloody diarrhea within a few days of vomiting onset. The diarrhea is often bright yellow color. There are enlarged lymph nodes.

Tomatoes and Tomato Plants: These contain atropine which can cause dilated pupils, tremors and irregular heartbeat. The highest concentration of atropine is found in the leaves and stems of tomato plants, next is the unripe (green) tomatoes and then the ripe tomato.

There are more. For a complete list visit http://mooreshaven.com/pets/dogs/safety/badfoodslist.html

May all your four-legged children be healthy.