OT: Important Msg for ALL Dog Owners

I live down the street from Purdue University, which has one of the best veterinary programs and veterinary hospitals in the country. I'm lucky enough to have vets that are some of the best in their specialty available when my dogs need them. When I took my dog to Purdue for an orthopedic injury, we happened to get on the topic of foods to avoid with your pet. I had already been warned about raisins, grapes, and chocolate, but I was also told they should not eat onions, garlic or other related foods.

Sorry to hear that this family had an unfortunate incident like this with their beloved pet. I know I'd be just as devastated if something happened to either of my dogs.

this has been posted already and recieved in several emails.

I have feed all my dogs grapes, m & m's, chocolate kisses, and even leftovers from our meals that had garlic and onions in it!... They are still alive after 8 yrs for the oldest and 6 for the youngest 2. What they don't tell you is "how much?". THey mean a dog can't sit there and eat a whole bag of chocolate, nor a bunch of onions, etc. But about 3-5 m&m's, or one or a few chocolate kisses',and a tablespoon of chopped onions in leftovers won't hurt them. Everydog is different. You can't avoid all accidents with your pet. If they get out and eat the neighbors trash ,etc. My mom's dog was a big dog about 50lbs and she loved ice cream and peanut m & ms....and even for a while ate her own poop till we figured out why-she lived a long time.

Sorry for their loss, but dogs eat stuff even you and I won't touch and don't get sick. Geez my cats outside are leaving mouse tails on my back porch!!...I know what they are eating!... They have even dug into my garbage bags in the garage and made a mess getting to something inside.

cowchipper

My baby is 10 pounds so he is a tiny feller. One day we came home and discovered that we had forgotten to put up the oreo's. Well, my lovable little pet ate the entire bag of oreo's and drank a little bit of milk that was left in a glass. I felt horrible because this was entirely my fault and I was so nervous that he was going to get sick. Funny thing was...he never got sick. But I learned to always put up the oreo's!

Crystal

My little 10 pound dog ate 68 mini Reese's peanut butter cups! I was worried she was going to die too. Instead she was fat, dumb and happy. Yes, I too made sure the kids put the school treats up and FURTHER away from the dogs... from then on.

Lynne

Chrissy, Thanks for sharing this as it is very close to my heart. I almost lost my beloved Boomer in April 06 because Logan fed him an entire box of raisins. He was in acute renal failure, his BUN was much higher than

32, it was 59 and he was close to death before we realized the seriousness of it. We took him to the vet and then prayed for devine intervention as the vet didn't think he would make it. There is nothing a vet can do but try to flush out the system and wait. His BUN levels elevated overnight but he was still hanging on. He was having seizures and to tell you the truth, we would have euthanized him if another vet at the clinic hadn't begged us and the other vet to try to wait it out. We did and waited another night, DH said that if Boomer wasn't prancing around like a pony the next day, we would go through with the euthanization. The next morning I called the vet. Sure enough, Boomer was ready to go home and he was back to his old self. His BUN was down to 39 and they expected it to drop back to normal. I was told I could pick him up at three. It was like having my dog back. I never felt so much guilt as I purchased the raisins that almost killed him. Since then, I have noticed he has put on a lot more weight (and he was fat to begin with), he is greying prematurely, and has a fit if he is out of water. He drinks a lot of water. He has a slightly different smell to him than my other two beagles. I am certain these are long term effects to his poisoning. That being said, raisins and grapes are HIGHLY toxic for dogs. They don't seem to know what is in them that makes them toxic to dogs. They have had reports of even organically grown raisins and grapes being toxic. Please don't feed them to dogs. As for chocolate, Ginger go a hold of an entire bag of oreos (minus three). I called the vet and was told they will do nothing but make her slightly sick if that. There is not enough chocolate to hurt a dog. The chocolate that is fatal is bakers chocolate or dark chocolate. Other forms of chocolate may just make them sick. Boomer got a hold of a whole box of Valentine's day chocolate and had diarrhea all over the house. Chocolate is not a good thing for dogs if diarrhea makes you want to vomit. Boomer also tried to eat Amdro--the fire ant bait (he loves to eat and is worse than a child). Amdro may just make them sick if it is in small quantities. It did nothing to Boomer, I don't think he got very much and I called poison control right away. I have to put him up when I put Amdro down on the yard. He follows me around and tries to eat it where I have put it down. Onions and garlic are supposed to be bad for dogs and I am sure it depends on the amount and the size of the dog. I wouldn't risk giving it to my dogs. Oh, and if you have beagles, they do climb and are very crafty. Thanks again for sharing this. Jacqui

"ChrissyM" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@o38g2000hse.googlegroups.com...

When I first got my dog, (from a breeder who should have passed along this information and didn't) I had no idea that there were harmful foods for them (dogs) that we commonly eat. Also, several houseplants are poisonous for pets. When Coco was a puppy, someone casually mentioned the chocolate thing to me. So, I asked my vet about the chocolate toxicity and he explained that a dog would have to eat one ounce per pound of body weight for the chocolate to be toxic.

Helen from NY