Keep the Tail Wagging is supported by pet parents. I occasionally earn a commission (at no additional cost to you) when you click through an affiliate link to one of my favorite products. Thank you for your support. Read More
Several years ago, one of our dogs helped himself to the last piece of chocolate cake. My first reaction was to panic because I've always been told chocolate is toxic to dogs. A call to the veterinarian called my anxiety; he wasn't showing signs of illness, and it was milk chocolate, not dark chocolate. Ultimately, we learned not to leave tasty treats unattended on the kitchen counter.
Is Chocolate Toxic to Dogs?
After years of being told not to give our dogs chocolate, I began to question this warning after my dog showed no ill side effects from the chocolate cake. I've learned that chocolate can be toxic to dogs, and the level of toxicity depends on the type and amount of chocolate consumed. The specific component in chocolate that is harmful to dogs is called theobromine. Theobromine belongs to a class of chemicals called methylxanthines, which are stimulants that affect the central nervous system and cardiovascular system.
Theobromine levels are highest in dark chocolate and unsweetened baking chocolate, making them more dangerous for dogs than milk chocolate. White chocolate contains very little theobromine and is generally considered less toxic, although it can still cause digestive upset if consumed in large amounts.
Types of Chocolate
Unsweetened Baking Chocolate: Contains the highest levels of theobromine and is extremely toxic to dogs. Even a small amount can be dangerous.
Dark Chocolate: Dark chocolate has higher theobromine content than milk chocolate, but the exact level can vary. The darker and more concentrated the chocolate, the higher the theobromine content and potential toxicity.
Milk Chocolate: While milk chocolate has lower theobromine levels than dark or baking chocolate, it can still be toxic to dogs if consumed in significant amounts. The risk is higher for small dogs or those with underlying health issues, such as pancreatitis or a cardiac condition.
White Chocolate: White chocolate contains very low levels of theobromine and is generally considered to have minimal toxicity. However, it can still cause gastrointestinal upset if consumed in large quantities due to the high fat and sugar content.
It's important to note that every dog's sensitivity to theobromine can vary, and even small amounts of chocolate can cause adverse effects in some cases. If you suspect your dog has consumed chocolate, it's essential to contact your veterinarian immediately for guidance and potential treatment.
Symptoms of Chocolate Poisoning
When dogs consume baking chocolate, dark chocolate, or an excessive amount of milk chocolate, they may experience symptoms of chocolate toxicity. The severity of symptoms can vary depending on the dog's size, the type and quantity of chocolate ingested, and individual sensitivity. Common symptoms of chocolate toxicity in dogs include:
Gastrointestinal Issues: Vomiting, diarrhea, and/or abdominal pain may occur within a few hours of chocolate ingestion.
Increased Thirst and Urination: Dogs may drink more water than usual and urinate more frequently.
Restlessness and Hyperactivity: The stimulant properties of theobromine can cause dogs to become restless, agitated, or excessively hyperactive.
Increased Heart Rate: Chocolate toxicity can lead to an elevated heart rate (tachycardia), palpitations, or irregular heart rhythms.
Elevated Blood Pressure: Dogs may experience high blood pressure, which can be accompanied by symptoms such as panting, tremors, and anxiety.
Muscle Tremors or Seizures: Severe chocolate toxicity can result in muscle tremors or seizures. In some cases, these seizures may be life-threatening.
Elevated Body Temperature: Dogs may experience an increase in body temperature (hyperthermia) due to the stimulant effects of theobromine.
Depression or Weakness: In more severe cases, dogs may exhibit signs of depression, weakness, or lethargy.
If you suspect your dog has ingested chocolate and is displaying any of these symptoms, it is crucial to seek immediate veterinary care. The veterinarian may induce vomiting to remove the chocolate from the dog's system or administer other necessary treatments to manage the symptoms and prevent complications.
How Much Chocolate Can Kill a Dog?
The amount of chocolate required to be fatal to a dog depends on the dog's size, weight, overall health, and the type and quantity of chocolate ingested. Because dogs metabolize theobromine more slowly than humans, even small amounts of chocolate can potentially cause harm.
It's essential to remember that any ingestion of chocolate by a dog should be taken seriously and promptly addressed. If you suspect your dog has ingested chocolate, it is crucial to contact your veterinarian immediately for guidance and potential treatment.
What to Do if Your Dog Eat's Chocolate
The best move is to contact your veterinarian; they can tell you if you should come in or walk you through a home treatment. When Rodrigo ate a piece of chocolate cake, I attempted to call the pet poison hotline, but they charged to speak with someone at the time. I didn't panic for long because Rodrigo never experienced any of the signs of chocolate toxicity.
Invest in Pet Insurance
Pet insurance has its pros and cons. Paying a monthly amount that increases as our dogs age without the need to submit a claim gives the impression that we wasted thousands of dollars. However, a significant and expensive health crisis makes pet insurance worth the risk. My oldest dog is on Trupanion, and my other dogs are on Embrace. I switched from Trupanion to Embrace for the lower monthly premiums. Today, many reputable pet insurance companies cover both traditional and holistic care.
Currently keeping an eye on Scooter – my 80 lb. pit bull. Someone left the cake pan too close to the edge of the counter and he took it upon himself to eat three of the remaining 6 pieces of chocolate cake (3″ x 3″ x 2″) with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. He’s always trying to steal stuff off the counter tops and stove top – even when they are shoved way to the back, he seems to be able to get at the goodies well enough to get at least one good bite in. This time he got more than his share. He seems to be fine so far, he’s bringing me his toy and wants me to play.
Been there, done that. I wrote this post a while ago so I don’t know how much detail I went into, but if you want to compare paranoia – I kept smelling Rodrigo’s breath to see if I could smell chocolate. My boyfriend thought I was nuts, but he’s learned to just watch my crazy.
I was so pissed when I found out that the pet poison control hotline charges a fee.
Hope your dogs are doing well today. I gave Rodrigo some raw goats milk; not sure if it helped, but he’s still fine today and he had a huge piece of chocolate cake (cake, filling, frosting).
Thank you so much for sharing your experience! I made german chocolate cupcakes last night from a mix so I don’t know how much actual “chocolate” is in there. I like having larger sized cupcakes (the ones that rise about 1/2″ above the paper line so I only got 23 cupcakes out of that batch. I had one, three kids had one a piece and there were 5 left this morning, making a grand total of approximately 7 cupcakes a piece between two 80 lb. german shepard dogs, in which I know (as mom trying to be in touch with my four-legged furry babies) the hard-headed one most likely had most of them. My man says they will be fine (his dog he had in his youth used to eat all kinds of stuff he wasn’t supposed to) and tells me i’m being overprotective. Unfortunately, I couldn’t just let it go, so here I am, doing research, monitoring my dogs and privately kicking myself in the butt for having cupcakes too close to the counter’s edge. Lesson learned!!!
Hi Eli
I’m so sorry. That sucks! Be sure to contact your vet to let him or her know what happened. They’ll be able to tell you want symptoms to look for just in case, that way you and your parents can get your dog into the vet ASAP if she exhibits any signs of toxicity.
Thanks for the comment!
You rock!
Hi. I just wanted to say THANK YOU SOOOOOO much. My dog ate chocolate for the first time this morning. I am only 15 and was alone in the house. my sister had just left leaving me with my dog but not waking me up. I woke up to my dog licking a chocolate cake. I was freaking out when i saw that baking chocolate was the deadliest to dogs. Unfortunatley the only supplies listed here that I had was the hydrogen peroxide. Once again want to thank you because it worked like a charm. I don’t know how much she ate but if it was a deadly amount then thank you for saving her life.
You are so lucky your dog survived. Cases of dogs dying in California, Washington and Colorado are climbing, because dogs are getting a hold of human cannabis treats. I’m glad that your dog made it through. Were you ever able to speak with your vet about any long term side effects?
My dog ate 6 chocolate chip cookies that were made with some super dank budder (THC/Marijuana infused butter)… they were double bagged, triple wrapped in saran wrap, and tucked away in my [unintentionally but partially unzipped] backpack. I left for no more than 2-3 minutes, as I had walked out to check the mail… when I came back in I first thought she had gotten into the trash because of the unrecognized “packaging” in the middle of my previously clean floor…. upon looking at the trash closer, I immediately knew what had happened and scrambled thru my backpack hoping I was wrong… I immediately started to tear up because they were not only chocolate chip, but highly potent “medibles” aka weed cookies that adult humans (even those who partake regularly) were only advised to start with half of a cookie… and she ate 6 whole cookies in less than 3 minutes. It wasn’t her first encounter with chocolate, unfortunately, and she’s a 50 pound dog so the chocolate chips were the least of my concerns at that point. I started frantically searching the internet and I don’t recall the specifics there, but turns out, many a dog have gotten a little more bang for their buck when sneaking human food! My dog was literally stoned for 36+ hours, peaking within the first 24 hours … she exhibited symptoms that I didn’t expect to necessarily carry over into canines (mostly because I’ve never seen a stoned dog before). Her eyes were so red and bloodshot and she slept for nearly 24 straight hours, only moving when I made her move… I kept a close eye on her, making her wake up, move around, and drink water fairly often (if her bloodshot eyes were any indication, I’m sure she had some killer cottonmouth too). After the first 24 or so hours elapsed and she finally decided to get up… every time she stood up, she would slowly lean over further and further until she would lose her balance and fall over… she repeated that a few times but it only lasted a few minutes and then she was back to playing with her toys. There were definitely some funny moments because she was clearly extremely baked, but it was mostly kind of sad… I felt bad for her because she had no idea what was going on or why any of it was happening. Ultimately though, she was fine… and acting pretty much the same way a human would act after 6 cannacookies, but honestly probably handling it better. I monitored her behavior the entire time and even though she never acted sick or anything (just stoned) it was still a pretty scary experience for me as a pet owner and I definitely recommend keeping your edibles out of your dog’s reach… especially if they’re smaller dogs and/or you’re not familiar with the effects of *ingested* THC (as it is much more psychoactive than smoked buds). It would have been much scarier to see my dog in that state had I not recognized the effects and I imagine the effects my be more concerning for small breed dogs. I learned my lesson and will be storing any and all medibles in tightly sealed tupperware from now on… friends don’t let furry friends get stoned!
Definitely keep the chocolate out of reach; but milk chocolate is safer than dark chocolate. Rodrigo won’t be getting any more in his lifetime if I can help it and we learned not to leave cake on the edge of the counter. Have fun with your puppy!
Great post! I’ve always heard that too much chocolate could kill a dog, so this worried me a lot as I just got a new puppy and I have chocolate all around the house (for guests, of course…). Anyways thanks so much for sharing this!
Thanks for the link! I’m going to use that next time. I hope there won’t be a next time. I nearly bought chocolate cake for J for Father’s Day. I took him to breakfast instead.
You did what we would’ve done!
Not sure if you found this specifically, but PetMD has this handy metric where you put in the dog’s weight, amount of chocolate, and type of chocolate and you can see the sort of dangers: http://www.petmd.com/dog/chocolate-toxicity
Luckily, because my dogs are big, they’d need to eat a LOT of milk chocolate (>20oz for Moses) before I even need to be a little worried. Not that I’m all laissez-faire with chocolate around my house, though. We have cats who get into basically anything left out, so we make sure all human food items are securely put away at all times.
Alma did get her paws on the Husband’s Wendy’s frosty once, though. She was fine. Doubt there’s any real ingredients of any kind in those, though!
Thanks, Jennifer. I was so mad at myself, because I know that Rodrigo can’t resist trying to steal a treat from the counter if he could reach it. I’m relieved that it worked out. He never showed any signs that I learned about – whew!
What a great article. I give you major kudos for not fully freaking out when this happened and you couldn’t be 100% certain which of your 4 dogs ate the slice of chocolate cake. Thank you for all the useful information and tips you included in this article. Although I have been lucky not to have this happen with my dogs, I know many people whose dogs got into chocolate and had to be rushed to the vet. I am glad your dog was fine after eating the slice of chocolate cake.
I have never had this problem. Neither of my pets have a sweet spot for chocolate or sweet cakes.
Gosh and with the recent approval of MJ in our state, we’re wondering when we’re going to see an increase in pot related illnesses in pets. It’s already increasing in California.
Happy to help!
Yes, I have faced the similar issue in the past with my dog and I didn’t took him to the vet because I was not aware that this can even kill a dog. Thanks for sharing this useful information and from now on I will be extra cautious.
Perhaps this may not become a problem for your dog. I hope so too. This is a good experience for every dog owner not to place such delicious cake that can be reached by your dog.
Remember that an interesting and good odour cake may also attract a dog to have a try.
With chocolate, there are a number of variables. The amount of chocolate, the type of chocolate, the size of the dog … and in order to consider vomiting, the time elapsed since eaten.
Personally I prefer to err on side of caution and if I felt it was a lot of chocolate, I’d rather induce vomiting.
When Cookie found outside and munched on what could have been a brownie or something of that sort I decided to consult with a vet whether or not it could have possible had enough chocolate to worry about.
I thought she should be ok with the amount of chocolate and the vet thought so too. But then she asked me what were the chances it was a pot brownie … Grrr. The chance, I thought, wasn’t substantial, but there was SOME chance.
So since it’s been within an hour from ingestion, we did decide to make Cookie throw it up. Went rather smooth and I could breathe again.
There are even more variables when decided whether or not induce vomiting , so the best policy is to talk to a vet to find out if that is a good idea in the first place.
Oreo my shihtzu ate a few M&M’s. I gave her some pepto and called the vet. He had me pull the crust off two pieces of bread & feed her the rest. Thankfully she was fine. Good to here your boy was ok too.
Ah yes, Shiner loves chocolate lol… She once ate half a box of Thin Mints girl scout cookies. I didn’t get too worried though because I have a good idea of what’s dangerous and what’s not. Have to be careful giving H202 with certain things. If the dog eats something that would be bad to throw up. Usually something sharp or caustic.
Well that was a relief. The only thing ingested thus far has been a sock, and ten days later Leo brought it up himself. I did go to the vet, (he was a puppy and I was a new Doodle Mom) but like you said, I walked in happy because of Pet Insurance – WHEW!!!
Good to know you kept your wits about you and did the research first. Similar to children (the two legged kind) they are bound to get into stuff, and sometimes we can figure it out ourselves. Mom’s ROCK!! (Fur moms too!)
I think I’ve shared this story before on the blog.
A few years ago my Labs got into my Art Studio. The door was shut (I thought it was locked, too…I guess it wasn’t), but my dogs open closed doors. My daughter was in charge of a baby shower and we had made up 80 little plastic boxes as favors. Each box held 8 Hershey Chocolate Nuggets wrapped in pretty, patterned paper and nestled in shredded paper (the kind you use for Easter baskets). That’s 640 pieces of chocolate, folks.
Can you see where this is going?
Ya, so I came home from running errands and the Art Studio looked like it had exploded. There were plastic boxes, ribbon and pink shredded paper everywhere…and not a piece of chocolate in sight.
Between the dogs, they had consumed about 10 pounds of chocolate…milk chocolate, dark chocolate and chocolate with almonds. Panic set in and I called the vet. She said not to make them vomit as that was only best if done in the first few minutes of consumption.
She also said that most dogs who have a reaction to chocolate will have one whether they ate one piece of chocolate or one pound of chocolate. She told me not to worry about how much they ate…as she felt the chocolate would pass on it’s own.
I gave the knuckleheads some pumpkin to help things move along and watched them closely. If I remember correctly, they fasted for 24 hours, too. Other than acting like they had full bellies…they were fine. The chocolates, colored tinfoil and patterned paper all passed with no issues.
My family’s golden retriever ate an entire package of Oreos off the counter one time. We were worried and made a call to the vet. The vet was not the least bit concerned and said she would be fine, other than possibly an upset tummy, but not from the chocolate. I can’t remember if Oreos just have a really small amount of actual chocolate in them or it was just not the type of chocolate to worry about.
Either way, our dog was fine. Like normal! She was about 70 pounds as well.
Ace ate a brownie off of a friend’s plate one time. Gone in one chomp. I didn’t worry about that since I assumed it was such a small amount. He was also fine.
On the other hand, my cousin’s beagle (20 pounds or so) ate a whole pan of brownies one time and she apparently got extremely sick and did go to the vet. This sounded like a very serious situation. Thankfully I’ve never had anything like that happen.
I can see how that would have been a scary time for you. Thankfully, we haven’t run into this problem. I’m definitely bookmarking this information, just in case I ever need it.