Easter

With Easter just around the corner, it’s time to issue our annual reminder not to give in to those big brown pleading eyes and allow your dog to have any chocolate. It seems too cruel to be true, but chocolate can be FATAL to dogs. The toxic substance contained in chocolate is theobromine, and its effects are exacerbated by caffeine, which is also present in most chocolate preparations.

Baking chocolate is more toxic than dark chocolate and cocoa, which are more toxic than milk chocolate; white chocolate is the least toxic, but is nevertheless still dangerous.

The signs of chocolate toxicity can include vomiting, diarrhoea, restlessness, hypersensitivity, elevated heart and respiratory rates, in coordination, tremors, seizures, weakness, coma and hypertension; death is usually the result of seizure activity and an abnormal heart rhythm.

We’re not trying to scare you unnecessarily, but we do want to impress on you the importance of this problem. The best advice we can give you is to completely avoid giving chocolate to your dog. If he manages to snavel some while you’re not looking, you should get in contact with us immediately.

We should also stress that none of the above information should deter any human from enjoying an Easter egg or two.

Happy Easter!