Yesterday morning Lucy the puggle dog walked in to the office with a chocolate truffle wrapped in green foil. I immediately jumped out of my chair and wrestled it out of her mouth and then went to investigate.
She had chewed open a sealed shipping box of whiskey truffles I had purchased in an airport back in February for my Mother in Law, obviously I had forgotten to send them.
I quickly scanned the area and spotted 4 empty wrappers. FOUR!
I screamed for The Girl to get the car, grabbed Lucy the trouble making dog and jumped in looking as about as disheveled as I’ve ever looked before in my life {ripped jeans, mismatched shoes, uncombed hair, teeth not brushed, bra,what bra? you know, the whole deal}.
We called the vet on the way and this being my first dog all I could say was dogs aren’t suppose to eat chocolate right? Right? Chocolate is bad, right?
Guess how much it costs to get a puggle’s stomach pumped? C’mon guess. We’re talking a couple of rounds of induced vomiting, charcoal, a couple of hours of observation, blood work, the whole bit.
One Hundred and Seventy Dollars!
Holy crap!
Those were some expensive truffles.
~Mavis
Marilyn Alexander says
When my dog ate a chocolate bar I called my vet and they told me he’d have to eat at least a pound to have ill effects.
I do watch my special chocolate stash now.
Were your vets ignorant or greedy? I wonder.
Mavis says
Lucy only weighs 12 pounds and according to the vet, baking chocolate is the worst, followed by truffles. Better to be safe than sorry in my opinion.
sister paul says
My dog broke into the storage drawer (which I kept locked to thwart my passing desires for chocolate, not his!) twice and devoured a lot of chocolate. My vet said it would take a lot of chocolate, that the concerns about dogs dying form chocolate or raisens are over-hyped. Although my dog weighs 140 pounds so perhaps it is the weight difference that makes your dog vulnerable. (And my dog is acutally under weight for his breed!)
sister paul says
Although I did have to have his stomach pumped the time he found, opened and ate an entire box of tampons. I came home to find him rolling around throwing up in the pile of plastic wrappers he’d ripped off before chewing off the plastic applicator to eat the cotton inside. He gave me a big smile, despite being sick, and there was still a tampon hanging off his front tooth by the string.
Laura says
Her vet was neither ignorant nor greedy! A lot depends on the kind of chocolate, and the weight of the dog. My dog ate a bag of Kisses and she didn’t need any vet care, as they were milk chocolate and she was a large Labrador.
Trust your vet with your dog. If my dog were little like Lucy I would have done just what Mavis did. (I have no idea if the whiskey would make a difference!)
Em says
Oh Lucy! Eat carrots, sweetheart!
Beth says
Puppies are fun aren’t they? My dog is now an old lady of 9 but when she was 6 months old, my teenage son left me with a 2 month old pitbull baby so I had 2 puppies to contend with….the pitbull crawled under my wooden deck and came out with her eye swollen like a baseball- I rushed her to the vet and basically was told she had been bitten by a spider! We had several experiences with both of these little darlings…fun times! Glad Lucy is ok- she is a little stinker now but she will outgrow it and you will survive it..
Mindy says
Honestly that is not too bad. We just paid 400 for an ultrasound : /
Chocolate is not a HUGE deal. American milk chocolate is so diluted it is not really the danger that people think. I am glad your baby is ok though.
Lissa says
Actually, chocolate IS a HUGE deal! I’m a vet tech who has worked in emergency hospitals for 13 years and we see chocolate toxicities All The Time. There is a huge range of toxic doses, depending on the type of chocolate the dog eats. It has to do with the amount of theobromine and caffeine in the chocolate. Baking cocoa is the highest, followed by dark chocolate, semisweet, then milk and white chocolate. True, a dog has to eat a good amount of milk chocolate to be toxic, but this also depends on the size of your dog. A little Puggle pup like Lucy can eat quite a small amount of truffles and be in danger of massive GI upset, heart arrhythmias, seizures, etc. So good for you Mavis on getting her quick treatment! It is much more dangerous (and expensive) to wait until they start showing symptoms to go to the vet. Don’t feel bad about the price tag – the same treatment in my Seattle ER hospital would have been probably ~$300 – so luckily it happened during normal clinic hours!
Might I suggest pet insurance? There’s a ton of different companies out there and they can really help out of lot with these kinds of unexpected costs. One popular company in the area is run out of Ballard: Trupanion
Michelle says
Our black lab tends to get into any food that is left in her reach. She has eaten my mother in laws Parkinson’s medicine and an entire plate of brownies in the past. My husband called poison control when she ate the medicine. They told him to give her Hydrogen Peroxide so that she will puke up whatever she ate that she should not have. We have had to do this a couple of times. 🙁 It does work very well and it doesn’t require a trip to the vet! I don’t remember the exact amount we gave her, and I am sure it will be different for Lucy as she is much smaller. I’m sure you could ask the vet about it, or find the dosage amount online. Thanks for sharing your Lucy stories, they make me smile!
Mavis says
I am going to ask. Thanks for the tip!
Lissa says
Please please don’t use hydrogen peroxide for Lucy! As a vet tech, we have learned to be very cautious about giving out hydrogen peroxide doses for several reasons:
1. Hydrogen peroxide only works about 1/2 the time. The injections in the hospital work 99.9% of the time
2. Hydrogen peroxide works by foaming and irritating the stomach lining. It therefore, is very irritating to the GI tract and especially if the pet doesn’t vomit it up
3. Because it takes horrible, you have to force it down them, it foams, and Puggles are a brachycephalic breed (smooshed face), they are more prone to aspiration or inhaling of the hydrogen peroxide +/- vomit which is a HUGE and dangerous problem.
4. Most times, just vomiting is not all the care these pets need. Usually depending on the toxicity, they need to have other medications such as charcoal, or have bloodwork checked, etc. So people make them vomit, think that’s all the needed, and they don’t bring them into the vet.
5. Time is of the essence. If you waste time trying hydrogen peroxide at home and it doesn’t work, you’ve lost easily an hour of time to get the toxin out.
Calling the vet and/or poison control and in general just getting to the vet’s office as soon as you can is always the best option.
cristy says
I had 2 dogs that ate some decon once that they found while snooping in the garage. Called the vet and they also said to use hydrogen peroxide. They said to mix it in a bowl with an egg and put the dogs outside. For the next hour or so they puked up blue foam all over the yard. They said if the dogs looked lethargic to bring them in the am for a vit. K shot. Dogs were fine in the am and no shot was needed.
Leanna says
You got off cheap.
Madam Chow says
I agree. Cheap-o!
You know those great Zaycon food chicken breasts? I got them last year for the first time ever – 120 pounds at $1.59. What a deal! Or so I thought….
When I got home, I had to process 120 pounds of chicken, so I got a huge black garbage bag, and spent the next hour or so trimming and bagging the chicken for the freezer. Now, my dogs (I have 3) have never, ever gone in the trash. I walked out of the kitchen to go to the loo, and when I came out, Sam slunk into the living room and looked very oddly at me. I went to pick him up and he howled in pain. His abdomen was grossly distended. I had no idea what happened at the point, but it looked like he had bloat (not torsion bloat), which is very dangerous.
I ran to the car in the state that you described, only I was covered in chicken juices. In the car, Sam vomited copious amounts of chicken fat … all over me. The vet x-rayed him, etc., and told me that his stomach was full of food, and suggested that I must be overfeeding him, which I though was nuts since he hadn’t eaten. I drove back home, almost FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS LATER. When I walked into the house, my two other dogs were smacking their lips, and the female, Daisy, was the size of a bloated tick. A huge light bulb went off in my head and I ran into the kitchen to find the now EMPTY trash bag.
I made the dogs fast for the next 2 days. Sam vomited and had awful diarrhea. Daisy hibernated, in a food-induced coma, and burped foul-smelling burps that smelled of rot and poo for 2 days. She barely pooped. Gus, the slowest of the gang, didn’t move fast enough, so he probably ate the least amount of chicken fat.
Needless to say, that chicken ended up costing about $6.00 a pound.
Madam Chow says
And I am sooo glad Miss Lucy is OK!
Mavis says
Oh.MY.WORD. What a bunch of stinkers!
Em says
Madam Chow, Wow! What a story. I’m glad it turned out well.
Rachele says
Wow! That is some inexpensive veterinary care! $170 is what we pay for an annual exam and the last emergency service that we had (blood work and an X-ray) was over $1000. I’d say that you got off light! 🙂
I am glad that little Lucy is a.o.k.!
Elyse says
Those rush visits to the vet are no fun at all! Yay for Lucy being alright!
My shepherd stole his first chocolate during the Christmas season five years ago, when I had left a chocolate orange on the table. Since then, he’s gotten into Halloween candy (which I found out when I discovered wrappers in the yard), and a few other times I left chocolate where he could get to it. I’ve since purchased sealed jars for the coffee table, or leave it in the fridge. Thankfully, he’s never had a problem.
crlzmmr says
I think next time you should go to the pound and get an adult dog.
(five or six years is a good age)
My last 3 dogs I got from the pound
and I never had a moment’s problem with them.
karen says
Oh Mavis, I guess her eating from the garden is starting to look better and better! Poor puppy! Four legged kids are mischief makers for sure! Now saving all that money on produce literally goes to the dogs!
mari says
That’s FOUR toilet seats!!
Cindy says
Try finding out your little dog ate an entire Easter Basket! Forced vomiting, stomach pumped, an IV and overnight observation in the animal ER. $2300 later….
Mavis says
Wow. Just Wow. $2,300? Talk about crazy!
Lana says
Our son and DIL’s dog ate a pincushion pins and all. $600 to open up Little Ray and remove the pins.
Mavis says
Seriously? You would think the dog would be like, ouch that hurts, maybe I should stop eating. Wow!
Becka says
$170 is nothing. I’ve had bills up to $3500 (for back surgery) for my pups! My chihuahua ate chocolate covered orange jellies one time and barfed all over my parents cream-white carpet…..he had some burnt toast and peppermint tea (from a turkey baster because he wouldn’t drink it) and turned out just fine! Hope Lucy is feeling better….you guys too!
Donna Jantzer says
Yup!! No dogs for me. Ever.
Tippy says
Just for the future, a dog has to eat WAY more chocolate than that for it to be a problem, something around 25% of it’s body weight depending on the quality. Next time, save your money and make sure she’s got lots of water. But if you really want it out of her system, a few tablespoons of hydrogen peroxide given with a turkey baster will bring it right up, or a cup of mineral oil will send it through quickly.
Amanda B says
My friend’s dog (twice!!) got into and ate a whole two pound box of chocolates. He was totally fine both times, without any vet intervention. Their family is do-it-yourself types, so maybe they induced vomiting for themselves? Not sure. My parents dog ate the wire bristle bbq brush recently. She’s fine. Dogs are total garbage guts sometimes, dumb things. :p
Theresa says
You got off cheap. It cost me $630 last month when my puppy ate some random root that put her into shock. I freaked out and rushed her to the vet at 5:58 PM. The vet office closed at 6:00 PM so the bill started off at $250 and just went up after that. The thing that made me the maddest was how many times they ask if I wanted this or that done and what it would cost . It was awful. I wanted to scream just save my dog. I’m happy Lucy is fine now.
Jenn says
$170 is cheap, cheap, cheap. I had to rush one of my boys to the emergency vet one night at 10:00 because he kept throwing up and then licking everything. Swallowed a baseball piece of a rawhide in one gulp and anything else off the floor he could get to. That ended up being a $500 trip for them to look examine and then gas him so they could look down his throat. I have since learned that when he gets nauseas he will lick the floor to make himself sick. Strange dog, but I love him anyway. Tell Lucy to stay away from the booze! She isn’t old enough to drink yet!
Sarah says
Hey Mavis, I now have three dogs, but only a few years ago was right where you are! :(. Puppy #2 got into chocolate, coffee, and *ahem* some ‘herbs’ my husband had in the house… So I have since learned a great doggy trick: use a medicine syring, and shoot 5 percent hydrogen peroxide into their mouths. It induces vomitting (sometime diahrea the next day), and is a whole lot cheaper than charcoal and stomache pumping! So for the *ahem* herbal situation, puppy wet to the vet, obviously. But with the coffee and chocolate, I used the peroxide solution and saved many hundreds of dollars!
BTW, chocolate has to be almost pure super-strength cocoa to hurt dogs – not milk choco candy. But if it were me, I’d have done the peroxide just to be safe!
We’re on puppy #3 right now (I guess I couldn’t get pregnant soon enough, lol), and he’s chewed: my china cabinet, holes in the drywall, my bite guard, the bannister, any bra, underwear, socks he can get to, all my summer shoes…and more! This must be the true meaning of ‘puppy love!’ Lol.
Anyway, off to vaccum clouds of dog hair!
Glad Lucy is okay :),
Amy says
Wow, I have to say Lucy’s vet bill wasn’t SO bad. My best friends’ dachsund recently ate a whole king-size chocolate bar. He had the stomach pumping, charcoal, bloodwork, overnight stay, etc. also and ended up with a grand total of almost $500.
Darn those puppy dogs and their various mischievous incidents! Just like having a toddler in the house! 😉
Mavis says
I agree! It’s just like having a toddler in the house. 😉
loren says
my dog is jack russell an i feed him chocolare all the time . for last 7 year an never had any probelm. loren
Tammei says
Definitely better safe than sorry, and really, $170 is a screaming deal!
Megs says
My dog got into the trash and eat a whole loaf of bad bread and some old cinnamon rolls. He was very sluggish for several days. He burped and had gas for awhile as well. He also got into bird seed and fertalizer once; called Animal Poision then and when he got into some pills! My neighbors like to spoil him and once when we were in their garage (a local hang out!) they were giving my dog chocolate cover peanuts. I told him not to and he said that a bit chocolate wouldnt hurt him but I ask him what about his peanut allergy! I just got a blank stare!
Kate says
My Izzy (mini poodle) is the same size as Lucy…and age. Not that long ago, when I left the room to go to the bathroom, she somehow got onto the dining room table where I had homemade chocolate cupcakes with homemade chocolate frosting….she was finishing off an entire cupcake when I got back. Needless to say i was terrified and it was (of course) 9:45 on a Sunday night so we had to rush to find a 24 hour emergency clinic. Vet had to induce vomiting and pump…also told us baking chocolate followed by rich chocolate and truffles were the worst. Poor babies like Lucy and Isabelle can’t handle that much! A very expensive trip, but worth it to have them ok, right!? My vet also said the practice of the peroxide is generally not recommended any more as it can cause ulcers especially in smaller dogs…so ask yours! 🙂 Glad she’s ok.
Clare says
FYI, if you ever need you dog to puke, our vet advised us to mix a little hydrogen peroxide (about a TBLS) into some yogurt (or what ever she will eat). 20 min later you’ll have a barfing dog and hopefully eradicate what ever they ate sans a vet trip/bill.
Clare says
Oh, just saw the post above. Good to know, but ulcers don’t usually develop from a single exposure to something. It’s usually ongoing, so I’d say if it’s very occasionally, I can’t imagine it would cause ulcers, but definitely check with your vet!
Jeremy says
170 dollars? Worth it.
~Lucy
Debbie says
Mavis – you totally did the right thing! Chocolate is very toxic to dogs and definitely warranted veterinary care. Different types of chocolate are more dangerous to dogs than others but that needs to be determined by a vet. Compounding the danger in Lucy’s case is that there was some amount of alcohol in the candy. Lucy is lucky to have such a loving and responsible owner. She will probably feel a little off for a day or two but nothing that some extra love won’t take care of and I have no doubt she will get plenty of that!
Alicia says
Bag of Hershey’s kisses left out + dog = the backyard looking like festive silver confetti bombs were dropped in random places for a week
Luckily we had a big ole Rottweiler and the vet said he would have to eat a lot more to have a problem. Although a shorter dog may not have noticed the bag on the table…
Glad Lucy is okay! They can be such troublemakers but they sure do make life a little sweeter!
Allison says
We gave our golden retriever hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting when she ate 18 king size candy bars:)
Yvonne says
I had to laugh at the Lucy picture! She looks so angry. “I had to work to get that chocolate (the whiskey was yummy too) and then they up and go and make me vomit not once but twice?” This is a no good, bad day!!”
Wendy says
We just got back from the VET with a bill of just under $1000 for our beloved
cat. He almost went into renal failure and may have some kidney damage. We
have decided it may be from chewing on a houseplant. Make sure to keep all
plants out of pets reach.
Jeri says
What we won’t do for the love of a pup eh? I have a bunch of dogs… short story though the oldest of the bunch who is 6 has what amounts to a torn ACL in both hind legs. Painful. I am pursing surgical repair of course because he’s only 6. $1500. each leg. My husband says to me when I told him. “How much is the surgery?”. 3K. “How much does it cost to get a dog at the humane society?” $60. “seems like a no brainer”. LOL… he was messing with me… but i’m sure he’d rather not drop that kind of coin on “my” dogs 🙂 He secretly loves them… he just won’t admit it. PS… to Beth who’s son left her with a 2 month old pittbull puppy… I was super glad to read that… I wondered if I was the only parent that got saddled with a pittbull puppy 🙂 Apparently not!
Jessica says
Lol! I think everyone who has had a dog has a story like this. Mine involves a big bag of dark chocolate m&ms and me being 7 months pregnant with twins. Of course the dog took the chocolate under the bed and I was too big to fit under. All I could do was lay on the floor and beg her to come out…as she ate MY supply of chocolate. Good times!
Mary Ann says
I had a Boxer named Megan who ate a whole plate of fudge I had set out for a friend who came over. I freaked out and took her to the emergency hospital and they anesthetized her and pumped her stomach. I can’t remember exactly how much it was back then, but it was EXPENSIVE, really expensive.
When I told my regular vet what happened and relayed the same story to him about the amount of chocolate in the fudge recipe that I had told to the emergency hospital (18 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate in the whole 5 pound batch and she ate maybe a pound) my vet was livid with the emergency hospital and made them pay me back a big portion of what they charged me and made them apologize for putting my dog at risk with the anesthesia when they clearly should have known that the amount of chocolate she ate was NOT going to kill her!
As far as big vet bills go, my cat, Ralph, has almost died three times — once he was attacked in his own backyard by the dogs across the street, once he ate a piece of bone, and once he ate a piece of wood! Each time he went through major surgery and almost didn’t make it and each incident ended with between $4,000 and $5,000 in vet bills! He’s one very expensive stray that we adopted!
Jen says
Our cat passed away a couple of months ago and last week we got kittens–they seem to find every stray, oddball thing in the house to put in their mouths. Last night it was a toothpaste cap–since ours was ON our tube, we don’t even know where it came from. Last week, though, we signed them up for pet insurance; I’ve never had that before but since our last cat had almost $5k in surgery and these guys will eat anything (seriously, like toddlers), I figured it was a worthwhile investment!
Jeri says
Can I just say that I wish there were “like”, “dislike” “freakin love this” buttons on your followers comments… cause I’d love to be able to respond to some of these hilarious & mutually miserable stories!
Samantha M. says
I had $5000 in vet bills for 2 combined vet trips for a cat. I lived in Australia at the time and she insisted on hunting snakes, very poisonous brown and red bellied snakes. After the second trip she became an indoor cat. I am amazed at the technology they have and what vets can do to help animals now a days. I was just glad our vet worked out a payment plan with us. Then there was our dog that decided to come down with HGE (basically internal bleeding that no one really knows the cause of) at 11pm on Christmas Eve. Driving to the vets with the dog in my arms pooping and vomiting blood and slowly getting weaker was a scary drive I never want to make a again. It was touch and go all night but the vet was amazing and pulled him through. It was an expensive $1000 Christmas present but the feeling when they rang the next morning and said looked like he’d be OK was the best damn Christmas present I’ve ever had.
Mary Beth says
My friend who’s a vet swears by the ChocoTox phone app. You enter your dog’s weight, what kind of chocolate they ate and how much and it tells you whether or not you should make a vet trip.
Caroline says
Hey Mavis,
I don’t do the hydrogen peroxide anymore as I had a dog aspirate it. However, there’s another good trick – salt. If you’re calm enough, you can make a salt ball with some water and shove it down their throat. I just grab the jar and start pouring, hold their mouth so they swallow and then step back.
It’s no fun to have a baby in distress, but I have to say, you got off really easy price wise. I can’t seem to walk out of the vets office for less than $250 for any reason these days. My last emergency was over $2000.00. I blame the pet insurance companies – vets in my area expect insurance and with insurance comes rising costs. It really makes me angry.
Amanda says
Better safe than sorry, indeed! My little guy has gotten into things a couple times and gotten the good ol’ hydrogen peroxide treatment. The first time he ever got into anything, it was a Milky Way bar. He ate about half the bar, but at the time he was only about 5 pounds, so I had a small heart attack. The actual cocoa content of a Milky Way bar (milk chocolate) is minimal enough that he didn’t have to go in, but inducing vomiting sure isn’t fun! Glad you saw it right away and were able to act quickly…(and I can totally relate to the disheveled bit…because emergencies just can NEVER happen when one actually looks presentable, for some reason…)
Melissa says
Growing up we had a wiener dog that ate a whole (big) package of hershey’s kisses. She even unwrapped them. She was totally fine and never got sick!
ann says
love the comment about Lucy not being old enough to drink! =)
I have to agree with those who say you got off easy/cheap! My vet bill is about $170 for the annual check up, about $250 if I do the recommended blood work and urine/fecal tests! $170 for an “emergency” visit, even during normal clinic hours, sounds like a good deal to me. =)
Regardless of how little chocolate was consumed, and all the stories and comments about how chocolate isn’t all that dangerous or other people’s dogs ate chocolate and didn’t get sick (I have similar stories, having had pets all of my life), I still believe that you did the right thing by taking Lucy to the vet.
I’m sure she’ll be fine, and back to causing more trouble faster than you can imagine. =)
vicki says
Poor Lucy! Dogs can’t eat dinner rolls that haven’t risen yet either. My poor Bella ate a couple off the counter. I called the emergency vet, they had me give her peroxide based on her weight. The bread can rise in the tummy and cause a blockage. She got sick for awhile but is ok. Lesson to me keep everything. (food) out of her reach…she always into everything!
Lori B says
Money well spent. The little stinker! I have two dogs and I would have done the exact same thing. They are a part of my family and there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to keep them safe.
Jessica says
Promise Mavis, Lucy would have been fine with no medical attention at all. I have had dogs all my life: mutts, purebreeds, small, medium, big, huge… Nowadays I own 10 dogs and none of them have EVER suffered any medical condition for an accidental chocolate intake. All the procedures your vet performed on Lucy were totally unnecessary, I can assure you that as God is my wittness. Hope there is not a next time, but a black-burned corn tortilla smashed with some milk works wonders even with some soft chemicals and DDT. Glad Lucy’s ok!!!!
Carrie says
Dogs will be dogs… We had a wonderfully sweet Keeshond named Caseybear who ate a whole centerpiece! Our middle school PTA had an Italian theme dinner one night and we as dutiful board members came up with table decorations; loaves of Italian bread which we then spray-shellaced, stuck a candle in and added a big bow. When the affair was over we brought home our table centerpieces. They were very pretty. I put ours on our coffee table and we went out to a movie. Two hours later we came home to find a bow and candle on the floor…. Not a crumb of the bread was to be found! Off to the emergency vet, charcoal, emetics…the whole thing and overnight observation. I have never forgotten my $200.00 centerpiece or attempted to use yummy products in decorating again!