(Ron Quaroni/paNOW Staff)

By Ian Gustafson

Halloween Treats

Keeping pets safe through the Halloween season

Oct 21, 2019 | 10:00 AM

With Halloween right around the corner an abundance of children will be out trick or treating.

Although, children aren’t the only ones who could be eating chocolate this season as sometimes feline and canine friends try to sneak a bite, which could lead to some potential serious health issues.

Dr. Peter Surkan, a veterinarian at Park Range Veterinary Services, said there are some basic principles on chocolate and caffeine that people should know about.

“There is no real anecdote to either of those and often the two of them are grouped together when you start talking about toxicities,” Surkan said.

He said another principal is the dark chocolates are a lot richer in components which will be more toxic to dogs.

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“That level of theobromine is a lot higher in your baker’s chocolates and your rich dark chocolate type of things as opposed to your milk chocolates,” Surkan said.

Chocolates that have a caramel centre or a lot of the chocolate bars that have a light milk chocolate along the outside of it, or biscuits will be a lower level of chocolate will most likely to be less toxic to animals, he said.

“It’s still depending on the amount eaten will have some toxicity,” Surkan said.

He said he and fellow vets often advise to induce vomiting in your pet if you’re within the first hour of them consuming the treat.

“We can talk to people about how to do that at home through administration of hydrogen peroxide orally. [It] would be something most people would have on the shelf,” he said.

Next, he said they often tell people that once the animal has vomited up whatever they ate to give the animal some protectants that will absorb some of the things in the stomach. At home he said it’s important to try to feed some high fiber foods.

“The half-life will end up being about 12 hours I believe for chocolate in the system so if you can get them through that first 12 to 24 hours and if they’re still very healthy chances are, you’ll be OK,” Surkan said.

There are several different symptoms a pet could experience depending on dose and the size of the pet, but early symptoms are vomiting, diarrhea, drinking more water, urinating more frequently, and clumsiness. In higher doses he said pet owners could see central nervous system stimulation, arrhythmias of the heart, and potentially death.

Death is uncommon unless your animal ate a lot of chocolate particularly dark chocolate or something fairly concentrated in theobromine, he said.

Xylitol, an artificial sweetener found in some treats such as sugar-free gums and can also be toxic to your animal.

He said with Xylitol the animal can have a very low blood sugar and the liver enzymes will skyrocket very quickly and the pet will end up having symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea, blood loss through stool, and could get very weak.

Just like chocolate, he said pet owners should try to induce vomiting sooner rather than later.

“It can cause liver failure if you’re not careful,” he said. “Just like children and house proofing, you have to make sure you try to dog proof your house for things like that.”

“Any vet clinic will be having an on-call veterinarian available and you know the thing to do is to end up phoning your local vet. We’ll talk you through it and decide whether or not it’s something we can handle here,” he said.

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Ian.Gustafson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @iangustafson12