Easter is just around the corner, and chocolate seems to be on every store shelf. Along with jellybeans, Peeps, and malted eggs, chocolate bunnies are found in virtually every child’s Easter basket. Every year we receive several calls from owners whose pets have gotten into Easter candy, wondering if they need to rush to the hospital for emergency treatment. While the jellybeans don’t pose much of threat, that giant chocolate rabbit can be dangerous.
Everyone who has ever eaten candy knows that there are many types of chocolate — milk chocolate, dark chocolate, baking chocolate, even white chocolate. Chocolate is made from the seeds of the cacao tree. The fruit of the cacao tree (the cacao pod) is sweet and attracts monkeys and other wildlife that safely eat the fruit but not the bitter seeds. Ironically, it is the bitter seeds, packed with theobromine and caffeine, which are used to make chocolate. The cacao pods are split, so the seeds can be scooped out and fermented under banana leaves for about a week. This turns the cacao seeds a rich brown and creates the chocolate flavor we love. The seeds are then dried, packed in sacks, and shipped to chocolate manufacturers. The seeds must be roasted, ground, pressed (which removes the oil of the seed, the “cocoa butter” that is used in sunscreens, white chocolate, and cosmetics, among other things), and tempered to create the exact consistency.
We eat chocolate in its simple form, baked into cakes and cookies, in sauces, and in other confections. While our digestive tract can digest these treats, our pets’ digestive tracts cannot. The fat and sugar in the chocolate can create an unpleasant but temporary upset stomach, with vomiting and diarrhea. Fortunately, this is what happens in most chocolate ingestion cases, as most pets do not ingest great amounts of chocolate at one time.
If larger quantities of chocolate are eaten at one time, theobromine toxicity results. The more chocolate liquor (the liquid that results from grinding the hulled cacao beans) there is in a product, the more theobromine is present. This makes baking chocolate the worst for pets, followed by semisweet, milk chocolate, and chocolate flavored cakes or cookies. Theobromine toxicity can cause vomiting, diarrhea, tremors, seizures, abnormal heart rhythms, and death.
Toxic doses of theobromine range from 9 mg per pound of dog for mild signs to 18 mg per pound of dog for severe signs. For a fifty-pound dog, a toxic dose of theobromine could come from 20 ounces of milk chocolate, 6 ounces of semisweet or dark chocolate, or just over 2 ounces of baking chocolate. While eating one chocolate chip cookie is not likely to cause a problem for most animals, should your pet eat any measurable amount of chocolate, contact you veterinarian for advice immediately.
There is no specific antidote for chocolate poisoning. Mild cases usually resolve with symptomatic treatment, while intensive care may be required for pets that have eaten a large amount of chocolate. Sadly many animals die each year of this easily preventable poisoning, often from getting into holiday candies and confections. Remember to keep all Easter baskets and candies securely out of your pet’s reach.