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    Nemesis0999Beth Skwarecki
    6/30/16 1:42pm

    This makes me wonder how my dog growing up did not die when she ingested 4 lbs of chocolate covered cherries. Granted she also ate entire plate of shrimp that where on bamboo skewers and another time ate a tray of chicken wings (bones and all). These happened typically before my parents had a large party so these where not small plates either.

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      BishopNemesis0999
      6/30/16 1:51pm

      My first dog growing up was a dachshund... she weighed 18 pounds... and ate a 6 pound beef roast... she couldn’t even move but the look of pure bliss on her face was hilarious... until we had to take her to the vet and induce vomiting because it was just too much food.

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      Beth SkwareckiNemesis0999
      6/30/16 2:16pm

      These numbers are what’s harmful on average, but some dogs are more susceptible and some, like yours, might be Superdog.

      That said, 4 pounds of chocolate covered cherries probably has a lot less than 4 pounds of chocolate in it.

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    HeartBurnKidBeth Skwarecki
    6/30/16 2:02pm

    Xylitol can also be found in some brands of peanut butter. Something else to be careful of, since many people use peanut butter as a dog treat or to prompt a dog to eat medicine. Always read the label!

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      Beth SkwareckiHeartBurnKid
      6/30/16 2:18pm

      Xylitol poisoning is getting more common because xylitol is turning up in more and more different products. Always good to check the label!

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      Rule-Breaking MothHeartBurnKid
      6/30/16 5:56pm

      Oh shit!!!!! Peanut butter is the only way I can get my dog to take his flea meds (topical doesn’t work for us.) Thank you so much for this comment.

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    KidneyPiBeth Skwarecki
    6/30/16 1:19pm

    Not listed: Hops

    I don’t think there’s enough of the deadly compounds to cause harm in most beers, but home brewers should know to keep their whole hops and trub away from their dog. They can cause fatal hyperthermia.

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      DeroniBonesKidneyPi
      6/30/16 1:30pm

      Good call... I’m always extra careful to make sure a there aren’t any pellets lying around when done with a batch, but it’s definitely easy for this to slip my mind. Brewing is far from a clean activity, and many that aren’t aware might not be so careful.

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      Beth SkwareckiKidneyPi
      6/30/16 2:17pm

      Yep. Here’s the Pet Poison Hotline’s fact sheet on hops.

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    frslou89Beth Skwarecki
    6/30/16 1:31pm

    Could we get a comparable list for cats? I didn’t realize until my cat ate a chocolate chip cookie, but chocolate is MORE harmful to cats than it is to dogs, but most cat’s don’t eat chocolate so it’s not a very well known bit of information.

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      greymanfrslou89
      6/30/16 1:48pm

      Just in general cats don’t tend to be as apt to graze on random food (or almost-food in some cases) as dogs and tend to have fewer problems like this.

      Granted, there are exceptions... I have one cat that will at least taste just about anything he can get his mouth around be it animal, vegetable, or mineral but the other one, and all the cats I’d had in the past, would pretty much only eat what I put in their bowl (even then it wasn’t a given) or what they would kill themselves.

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      Beth Skwareckifrslou89
      6/30/16 1:55pm

      I thought about trying to cover both dogs and cats in this list, but the “most dangerous” are different for each. A counterpart for cats sounds like a good idea!

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    Hi MomBeth Skwarecki
    6/30/16 2:18pm

    Perhaps there has already been a thread about this, but a good companion article would be one about which human food is GOOD for dogs. We just discovered our pups love carrots. They’re A LOT cheaper than dogs treats—which, as vegetarians, is hard to get behind anyways. There are many other kinds of everyday human food—pumpkins, apples, sweet potatoes—that can be used as rewards instead of pig ears.

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      AnglKatHi Mom
      6/30/16 3:37pm

      I just discovered this too! I give her baby carrots and apple slices as a treat. She loves it.

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      ad infinitumHi Mom
      6/30/16 6:10pm

      One of mine loves sugar snap peas.

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    commandoclone87Beth Skwarecki
    6/30/16 1:31pm

    Used to have a beagle/retriever mix.

    One year, we had gotten 1lb chocolate Easter bunnies for Easter and left it on top of a dresser and went outside.

    When we came back in, we found the dog having scarfed down 2/3 of the chocolate. Scared us shitless, but somehow, the dog managed to survive with no ill effects. Still have no concrete idea how the dog got it from the top of a dresser or how it was opened without the plastic being chewed up.

    I guess we were lucky the parents didn’t spring for anything more expensive.

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      BobbyD17commandoclone87
      6/30/16 2:10pm

      We came home one day and found our cat and great dane on a bed with chips that were on top of the fridge (about 6' high) and salsa that was in a grocery bag on the counter. They looked so surprised to see us walk in the door, but it was too hilarious to warrant any kind of punishment.

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      ValiexiBobbyD17
      6/30/16 2:31pm

      That’s pretty cute that the Great Dane was willing to share that haul with the cat.

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    ImpotentPeteRageBeth Skwarecki
    6/30/16 3:56pm

    Daughter of a veterinarian here– chocolate isn’t NEAR as toxic to dogs as people think it is. My sister’s rottweiler scarfed down a 9x13 pan of m&m brownies while we were out one evening, and she was fine (maybe an upset stomach, my dad told us to leave her outside overnight, so she didn’t go in the house) In 30 years of practice, he’s never had a dog die from chocolate poisoning. I’m not saying give your dog a Hershey bar, but don’t flip out immediately if they get into a bag of choc chips– especially if they’re larger.

    One thing you DO need to careful of is giving small dogs rich people food. Their systems aren’t equipped to process it. A guy I knew in college almost lost his schnauzer after he ate a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. BAD pancreatitis.

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      ad infinitumImpotentPeteRage
      6/30/16 6:10pm

      My (15-lb.) dog ate a bag of chocolate coins a few months ago, and I nearly had a heart attack, but he barely had a reaction. When I mentioned to his daycare owner the next day, she said, “As long as it’s American chocolate, they’re usually just fine.”

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    donniedarko2001Beth Skwarecki
    6/30/16 1:18pm

    I had an 11lb Italian greyhound that decided it might be fun to eat an entire Zoet 85% cacao Extra Dark chocolate bar while I was at work. It opened a drawer to get to it. The dog shook for 2 days straight before it calmed back down.

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      AnglKatdonniedarko2001
      6/30/16 3:34pm

      Poor thing! I have an italian greyound mix, and she gets into everything. She opened the cabinet where I kept her multivitamins once and ate most of the bottle. She was fine, but it taught me to basically child proof my house.

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    SmoothieKingBeth Skwarecki
    6/30/16 2:07pm

    It drives me nuts, when I see people feeding their pets from their dinner plate. Friends of ours do this all the time. The worst are their parents. Their dog sits in the father’s lap at the dinner table. He takes turns feeding the dog and himself. But here’s the kicker he feeds the dog with his fork. Yes, the same one that he puts in his mouth. I had to excuse myself from the table.

    Food is not love people!

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      AnglKatSmoothieKing
      6/30/16 3:39pm

      Ok, that’s gross.

      But people food is not necessarily bad for dogs. I give mine fruits and veggies, and make her dog food with chicken, green beans, and rice.

      But she doesn’t eat off my fucking plate. I would have left the table too.

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      SmoothieKingAnglKat
      6/30/16 3:47pm

      You mean, you don’t feed her from your fork. The same one you put in your mouth. While sitting at a table full of strangers, at your kids house.

      Yeah, It was gross.

      I make dog treats for my dog all the time. Chicken jerky and dehydrated sweet potatoes once a month. It’s dirt cheap and super easy.

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    jriley154Beth Skwarecki
    6/30/16 2:20pm

    Here's the simple answer: your dog is a CARNAVORE. If you're first answer isn't I don't feed my dog anything besides dog food, the second answer should be only feed them meat (minus bones)

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      Thidrekrjriley154
      6/30/16 5:00pm

      Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but the answer, I believe, has more to do with the fact that humans have exceptionally strong livers compared to the rest of the animal kingdom, while having comparably weaker immune systems. Perhaps this is why certain animals can die from chocolate, despite having no trouble eating feces—while the same activity could make us sick and potentially die from an infection.

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