last night my 8kg  border puppy ripped open one of the carrier bags of shopping that had just been delivered by a well known supermarket. inside she found an chocolate easter chick wrapped in foil  and ate 3/4 of it in secret.  within 5 minutes i realised what she had done and rang the vet immediatley.  the vet called the poisons agency and they calculated that for her weight and age she had ingested a lethal dose.  I am quite horrified how little is actally lethal to a dog. she ate 150g of chocolate.  i whisked her to the vet where she was injected with an emetic to induce vomitting.  it was very traumatic to watch, the effect of the emetic made her very ill for about 1/2 hour she was staggering about and in distress. she vomitted a huge amount of undigested chocolate (which was good as it all came up as i had got her there very quickly). she then had charcoal to deactivate the theobromine in the chocolate.  we are medical people so brought her back and did hourly pulse and resps on her.  thank god she was ok this morning, but the effect can be upto 24 hours after ingestion if it is not acted upon quickly.

i would just like to share our experience and warn others (if they don't already know) to be careful where chocolate is concerned. i thought i was careful and look what happened. a delivery of a huge shop, carrier bags on the floor left by the delivery guy and a busy mum trying to get it all in the fridge and freezer quick could have resulted in a near disaster.  also, the toxic effect of such a small amount of chocolate needs to be remembered this easter time.

So glad she's OK now. Apparently dogs are also very addicted to chocolate, and once thay have tasted it they actively look for it .

It is shocking what chocolate can do and apparently giant breeds are at even more risk - something to do with thier hearts already being under strain & the theobromine causing the heart to race.

It's so easy for them to get hold of something they shouldn't have. My kids are slowly getting the message that they have to look for crumbs/dropped bits after eating chocolate

Blimey. Glad it all worked out OK for you & well done on your quick response.
If dogs actively look for chocolate after having a taste of it, then it may be a good idea to put all chocolate in high cupboards that the dogs cannot reach or find a way to get into.
Suppose we're all guilty of "forgetting" at times and being less cautious.
Thanks for highlighting this for us.
x

The more cocoa content the smaller amount to be lethal.
I think something like 5g of 70% cocoa chocolate will be lethal to some dogs, but they would need kilos of white chocolate to have the same effect (or something like that).
There was a link somewhere that had a table showing lethal quantities but I can't find it.

Here's a post I did some while back about the treatment threshhold for the different types of chocolate (copied from the notice in the vet's surgery!)

The list is the amounts of the various products a 10kg dog would need to ingest to require treatment. Obviously the quantities would extrapolate up or down for different sized dogs.

White chocolate:         22 kg (!!)
Drinking choc powder:  400g
Milk chocolate:           90-134g
Plain/dark chocolate:   2.5-45g
Cocoa powder:           8-38g
Cocoa beans:             5-18g
Cocoa shell mulch:      7-15g

The treatment threshold is 20mg theobromine per kilogram bodyweight.

I always put about the dangers of Chocolate in my puppy packs, because I think there are so many people that just don't realise how deadly it can be. I also put in about the dangers of shredders too.

Glad to hear your boy is okay now due to your quick action.

How stressfull for you all. Hope all's well now. Thank you for the warning, I did know it was harmful but didn't realise just how serious it was. I'm going to be extra carefull now especially with Easter nearly here. Thank you X

thanks to those for passing on their own experiences and info. particular thanks to jeangenie for the levels that can be dangerous. i am sure everyone will find this very useful

JG - knew I had seen it somewhere and wasn't imagining it.

Alisongold - shredders as in paper shredders and getting dogs long hair caught?    that's the only thing I can think of. 

wow, white chocolates not to scary then, good stuff, i don't ever eat the other stuff!

Unfortunately, dogs have had their tongues caught in them when they have been left on standby, result is the dog is euthanazed. It is amazing but we just don't think about the dangers but that is why people sharing experiences and stories of these incidents are so important. The other thing about shredders are long ears being caught.
I think also that it is worth pointing out that babies could get their fingers caught in them too.

ugh, what a horrible horrible thought!

OMG I never even thought of that.
Thank goodness mine is always turned off and unplugged when I'm not using it.

i have just found a really good web site giving an excellent account of chocolate poisoning and treatments. it is www.baringvet.net/chocolate.htm
hopefully no one else will need it and dogs remain safe this easter.

One of my working cockers managed to eat two thirds of a large bar of Green and Black's super duper high cocoa content dark chocolate one day when he was about 7 months old. I was in the shower and I had friends staying, he got upstairs without them realising and found the chocolate in one of their bags in the spare room. I came out of the bathroom to find him lying in the landing happily munching his way through it and I was horrified. Gut action took over and I dumped him in the bath and stuck a toothbrush handle down his throat to make him sick it up whilst simultaneously screaming at my friends to bring me some clothes so I could get him to the vet. He puked all of it up in the bath and the vet just gave him the charcoal when we got there. He was fine, he suffered no ill effects at all other than being rather disgruntled at being disturbed in the middle of having his nice treat and made to be sick!!