Chocolate Labradors

Ah Easter...the time of bunnies, Easter eggs, chocolate, and of course, chocolate poisonings in dogs...usually labradors, the food addicts of the dog world. We often get phone-calls from panicked owners about dogs having eaten one or two Easter eggs. These are usually false alarms as the eggs are mostly milk chocolate, and it takes a lot more chocolate than people realise to poison a dog.

That was, however, until a one year old Lab was brought in as he had managed to polish off an A4 sized one inch deep container FULL of chocolate (including one of those dark rabbit chocs) sometime during the night. The kids were not happy at having lost all their Easter treats and their mother was not happy at having grumpy kids and a hyperactive lab on her hands.

Now the active ingredient, theobromine, causes hyperactivity, increased heart rate, vomiting & diarrhoea, heart irregularities and seizures resulting in death. Essentially it's the equivalent of giving a kid a whole lot of sugar mixed in with caffeine and energy drinks, and then releasing it into a funpark.
So when the lab arrived bouncing off the walls, it was understandably difficult to examine. He had already vomited a couple of times, purging some of the chocolate, but now needed further treatment to ensure he wouldn't absorb any more toxin. I sedated him so that he wouldn't be ricocheting off the walls of his cage and, once he had calmed down a bit, re-examined him. Even his breath smelled of chocolate as he happily panted in my face! He was doing well so we decided to give him a small feed containing activated charcoal (just in case). Unfortunately this stimulated the gastrocolic reflex...i.e. he suddenly needed to poo. ALL OVER THE PREP ROOM FLOOR. All I can say is that I have NEVER smelt anything like it - it was like pure chocolate! We frantically scrambled to prevent him from treading in it as he spun around depositing his little chocolate surprises all over the floor, trying not to fall over laughing as we did so.

I suppose it could have been worse as he could have eaten fish or something equally horrible, but it was enough to put us off chocolate for a while. Which meant that no one was interested in the chocolates dropped off by a client that morning...well, not until the smell of chocolate had been cleared from the air...