Cacao nibs and dogs

Got home last night from dinner and my dog was acting very strange, pacing, shaking, panting. Would not sit still or relax. She finally vomited several times and amongst her food, found little black things that turned out to be cacao nibs. After going to the pantry and finding my bag of nibs gone, I put it together. She had jumped up to my brewing supplies shelf, taken the bag outside, and feasted on the whole thing. Turns out chocolate toxicity in a dog is very real and nibs are the most potent. She is currently in the the vet hospital with IV fluids, charcoal flushes, and antiseizure medication. Looks like she’s going to be fine, but just thought everyone should know to put their nibs on a high shelf.

Absolutely and let’s not forget about hops being potentially fatal for dogs, and they do love to eat them.

I feel for you dude. Glad you found out in time to get her to the vet. We had a similar experience when our Doberman ate a pack of gum that contained Xylitol.

so glad to hear she’s going to be ok. Thats absolutely terrifying. I’ll stick to getting my chocolate flavor from malts :mrgreen:

Similar note: my mom’s lab ate about a pound of Ghirardelli baking chocolate one time. He vomited it up, but was ok after that. He also ate an entire triple chocolate cake one time. Fella has nine lives.

I know that the chocolate issue is about the caffeine, but what is it in hops?

I can’t remember all the details, but there is quite a bit in the archive. A few years ago, one of the members almost lost his Lab(I believe). It seems there’s something in hope that affects their metabolism. Maybe someone else out there remembers better. The 70 year old memory ain’t what it used to was. :cheers:

The hop thing is hypothermia if I remember correctly. Dogs are attracted to spent grains and sweet wort more than hops on their own, but it pays to be careful with them in any form.

Its not the caffine, its the theobromine, dogs and cats cannot matabolize it they way humans can. The leathal amount is weight dependent.

Its not the caffine, its the theobromine, dogs and cats cannot matabolize it they way humans can. The leathal amount is weight dependent.[/quote]

Actually, it’s both. They’re both methylxanthines, which humans more easily break down and excrete. Caffeine is just a simplified explanation, as everyone knows what caffeine is and does.

Funny I just saw something on Facebook about cocoa mulch being dangerous to dogs. Turns out (like a lot of stuff on FB) to be partly true http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamulch.asp

Best advice is to keep anything like that locked up or out of reach. The death of dogs due to ingesting spent hops apparently are very rare but why take any chances. We have two rescue dogs that are our children and I could not imagine how I would feel if one was poisoned by my hops. The spent ones get bagged up and put into a trash can they can not get into.

So sorry to hear about your dog Trapae. I can not imagine what you are going through. We are pulling for her.

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Actualy, it’s hyperthermia, the opposite of hypothermia. Eating hops causes their temperature to skyrocket, which can be fatal if not treated. It seems that some breeds of dogs, such as greynounds, are more sensitive to hops than others.

Basically, what you’re saying is everything I love really does kill puppies.

I forgot to compost my spent grains once, and my dog ate some. I found out about it cleaning up after her in the yard, it was very evident what she ate. I’m much more careful now. Dogs like beer too. I had a friend who’s dog was alcoholic, from him giving it to the dog all the time. He thought it was funny, but it was sad because the dog exhibited all of the symptoms of a true alcoholic.

Friend of mine also had an alcoholic dog he would drink 2 or 3 beers and the dog would drink 1 and any spills.
Went to his house one Saturday morning and the dog hardly could get up, he had blood shot eyes and threw up.
Sad to say he died at the age of 5 not so funny now he was a pretty golden lab.

[quote=“chuck”]Friend of mine also had an alcoholic dog he would drink 2 or 3 beers and the dog would drink 1 and any spills.
Went to his house one Saturday morning and the dog hardly could get up, he had blood shot eyes and threw up.
Sad to say he died at the age of 5 not so funny now he was a pretty golden lab.[/quote]Very sad chuck. We had a dog that loved my homebrew and really hated budmilcoors stuff. A couple of times we thought maybe he had enough, like kind of fall over catching a treat but we cut it short after that and “moderated” his consumption after that.

Sounds like a real smart dog Mark, knowing the diff between BMC, and good beer.

Dogs are often smarter than humams when it comes to consumption. I have a Jack Russell that cleaned up a spill before my wife could get to it. The dog became very drunk and actually got sick. The entire night he was hungover and avoided us. Now he won’t even get near alcohol and if you hold your glass down to him he starts barking like crazy.
Wish we could learn our lesson like that.