{"id":243,"date":"2013-06-04T22:15:32","date_gmt":"2013-06-04T22:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pottonvets.co.uk\/?p=243"},"modified":"2026-03-17T10:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T10:53:09","slug":"chocolate-poisoning-what-you-should-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pottonvets.co.uk\/prometheus\/chocolate-poisoning-what-you-should-know\/","title":{"rendered":"Chocolate poisoning &#8211; what you should know"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<strong>Chocolate poisoning in dogs.<\/strong><br \/>\nDogs are susceptible to chocolate poisoning.\u00a0 This is because they are more sensitive to the poisonous ingredient (theobromide), they are relatively small compared to humans, and they can very quickly eat a lot of chocolate (or whatever else they can get hold of!)<br \/>\n<strong>Charateristics that make poisoning more likely:<\/strong><br \/>\nSmall dogs have a lower body weight which makes them more susceptible.<br \/>\nType of chocolate: Bakers chocolate, dark chocolates and cocoa powder\/beans\/shell mulches contain far more theobromide than the refined chocolates (milk and white chocolates).<br \/>\n<strong>Symptoms:<\/strong><br \/>\nGastrointestinal symptoms are common (vomiting, nausea, diarrhoea), as is increased drinking and urinating.<br \/>\nLater, or if large amounts are eaten, symptoms may include muscle tremors, seizures, irregular heartbeats, internal bleeding and possible heart failure.<br \/>\n<strong>How much is too much:<\/strong><br \/>\nThis is not always easy to answer, but one or a few milk\/white chocolates are unlikely to cause any problems in healthy dogs.<br \/>\nWith a dark or bitter chocolate however, as little as 25g can cause symptoms in a 20kg dog.<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-630 alignright lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.pottonvets.co.uk\/prometheus\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Chocolate-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Chocolate\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 150px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 150\/150;\" \/><br \/>\nSymptoms normally start within 2 hours, but can take up to 24 hours.<br \/>\nIf in doubt, rather take a cautious approach early on and contact us for advice.<br \/>\nPrompt treatment is essential in overdose cases.\u00a0 We do provide 24-hour emergency cover for our clients, so even if you have a chocolate guzzling monster late at night \u2013 please call.<br \/>\nSymptoms can continue for up to 3 days.<br \/>\n<strong>Treatment:<\/strong><br \/>\nBy far the best treatment is to medically cause vomiting (ideally within half an hour of ingestion, but up to 2 hours, or even a little longer will reduce the amount of theobromide absorbed).<br \/>\nThis is best done at the practice with an injectable drug that causes vomiting, reliably.<br \/>\n<strong>Lethal dosages and the numbers:<\/strong><br \/>\nThe lethal dose of theobromide is 100-500mg\/kg of body weight.<br \/>\nCocoa powder (20mg\/g) and plain dark chocolate (15mg\/g) contain the highest levels of theobromide.\u00a0 Milk chocolate has around 2mg\/g and white chocolate very little at 0.1mg\/g).<br \/>\nTherefore, 100g of dark chocolate (1500mg theobromide) could kill a 10kg dog (1000mg potential lethal dose).<br \/>\nTo get the same amount of theobromide from white chocolate this dog would need to eat 15kg of chocolate!<br \/>\nPut another way treatment is needed if your dog eats more than:<br \/>\n\u00d8\u00a0 9g\/kg of milk chocolate (the light brown one)<br \/>\n\u00d8\u00a0 1.25g\/kg of dark chocolate (dark brown\/cooking chocolate)<br \/>\nPlease note: these figures are not absolutes, please call for advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Chocolate poisoning in dogs. Dogs are susceptible to chocolate poisoning.\u00a0 This is because they are more sensitive to the poisonous ingredient (theobromide), they are relatively small compared to humans, and they can very quickly eat a lot of chocolate (or whatever else they can get hold of!) Charateristics that make poisoning more likely: Small [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pet-care"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Chocolate poisoning - what you should know - Potton Veterinary Surgery<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chocolate poisoning - what you should know - Potton Veterinary Surgery\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; Chocolate poisoning in dogs. 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