Dogs and Chocolate

Two things that should never mix.

John's favorite treat in the entire world is dark chocolate. I mean DARK chocolate. He likes those candy bars that claim to be 90% Cocoa. I think they taste like chalk, but that is just me.

Anyway, I bought his a couple of these bars the other day. He was thrilled.

Tuesday afternoon he called me at work.

"What happens if a dog eats 1/2 a dark chocolate bar?" he asked.

"They die.", I replied.

"I'll call you right back." he said, and hung up.

I have been married to John long enough to know that these kind of things happen. So I didn't get too worried. I let it go, until I came home that afternoon.

I walked in to see John holding a bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide and a huge container of Idoz Salt. Max was looking up at him with an expression of hunger.

"Are you feeding that stuff to him?", I asked.

"Yeah, the vet said I have to get him to throw up all the chocolate, and that this is what you give a dog to make them barf. The problem is, Max likes this stuff and eats it with no problem." John told me.

So, after an initial dosage of two teaspoons recommended by the vet we ended up with giving him around six tablespoons of peroxide, plus two tablespoons of salt to make it foam up after no luck with the peroxide alone. Max lapped up peroxide and salt like it was a treat. He didn't even look like he was going to be sick at all. The vet was amazed as call after call she told us to give him more.

It was get him to barf, or get an emergency stomach pump. And I was not paying for that when Peroxide and Salt were practically free.

Max finally foamed up and puked loads of chocolate in the front yard, and all was well. So gross to watch.

We learned two things.

1. How to make a dog barf.

2. Not to leave chocolate on the kitchen counter. Max may only be a foot and a half tall, but he is three and a half feet long. On his hind legs he can reach anything.