Despite a lot of information being available on how toxic chocolate can be for dogs, many people remain unaware of this danger.
In general it takes a large amount of chocolate to be deadly to your dog, but this depends a lot on how big your dog is and what type of chocolate it is.
The reason that chocolate is toxic to dogs is because it contains a compound called theobromine.
Milk chocolate contain 44 mg of theobromine per ounce, semisweet chocolate contains 150mg per ounce, and baker's chocolate contains 390 mg per ounce.
It is believed that the toxicity level of theobromine is about 100mg/kg.
So if you have a 50 pound dog that means it roughly takes 50 ounces of milk chocolate, 17 ounces of semi sweet chocolate, and 5.
5 ounces of Bakers chocolate to make your dog very sick.
From this example you can see how much more toxic Baker's chocolate is compared to milk chocolate.
Some signs of chocolate toxicity in dogs includes vomiting, diarrhea, increase heart rate, restlessness, increase urination and muscle tremors.
So if you think your dog has eaten any chocolate at all you should see your veterinarian right away.
Most veterinarians will likely try to induce vomiting if the chocolate has recently been consumed.
If the dog is already showing clinical signs, intravenous fluids is another common treatment tried by veterinarians.
So the next time you have chocolate on the kitchen counters, take some time and put it in a drawer or cabinet where your dog cannot possible get it.