Why is Chocolate Bad for Dogs?
By: Stanley P.
It is common knowledge amongst dog owners that chocolate is toxic to dogs. It is essential to keep chocolate away from areas dogs can reach as a dog owner. Although chocolate is harmful, most of the time, it isn’t fatal at all. However, your dog can come down with a severe illness and will need a trip to the vet from eating chocolate. So why does this even happen?
Theobromine
Theobromine is an alkaloid in chocolate. Alkaloids are chemicals with rings that contain at least one nitrogen atom. They are known to have physiological effects on humans and animals when consumed.
Theobromine is a stimulant alongside caffeine, both of which are present in chocolate. They both can be toxic for dogs, but there is much more theobromine in chocolate than caffeine. In low to standard doses, theobromine raises your heart rate and dilates blood vessels, providing energy to muscles. Theobromine raises your heart rate at high amounts to the point where you will suffer some side effects. Side effects include nausea, involuntary muscle contraction, heart attack and death.
Theobromine vs Human
Wait! Before you put chocolate away forever from reading these side effects, know that these effects only happen when you consume too much theobromine. And when I mean too much, I mean TOO much. Humans can process theobromine through our body quickly, at a biological half-life of 2-3 hours. Half-life indicates half of the chemical you will process during this amount of time. This means that theobromine in standard doses will leave your body unharmed. In an article written by Popular Science, 1,000 mg of theobromine is when humans start facing illnesses. This is approximately 220g of dark chocolate or 416g of milk chocolate. 75,000mg is fatal for a person weighing 165 pounds; this is about 711 regular-sized Hershey’s milk chocolate bars or 7,084 Hershey’s kisses. It’d honestly be pretty impressive for someone to eat a fatal amount of chocolate.
Theobromine vs Dog
If theobromine is only fatal in high amounts for humans, why do dogs easily get sick and die? The difference between dogs and humans is that dogs cannot process theobromine as fast as humans. The biological half-life of theobromine in dogs is 18 hours. This means that dogs process theobromine 6-9x slower than humans.
The effects of theobromine on humans still happen to dogs but at a much lower rate. For dogs, 20mg/kg (dog’s weight) is considered toxic drooling, vomiting, and diarrhea can occur. Having 40mg/kg can cause a racing heart rate, heart arrhythmia, and high blood pressure. At 60mg/kg, tremors, twitching and seizures. Finally, death can occur at 200mg/kg. If your dog ate chocolate, contact your veterinarian or call the Pet Poison Helpline to get your dog examined immediately.
Conclusion
In conclusion, chocolate contains a chemical called theobromine. Theobromine causes elevated heart rates and can cause serious side effects when consumed in large amounts. Humans can process theobromine fast, so it is safe to ingest. Dogs cannot process theobromine as quickly and can face severe illnesses due to this.
Links:
https://www.popsci.com/chocolate-theobromine-toxic-amount/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1215566/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6Ptlaxuuy0
https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/chocolate-poisoning-in-dogs
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