Halloween Treats Can be Tricky for your Pet
Advice from Animal Expert Dr. Grey Stafford
 Halloween can be a spooky time for pets especially if you live on a street filled with little ghosts and goblins making their way door to door searching for treats. Let’s look at it from your pet’s point of view. To them, Halloween means lots of strangers coming to the house all evening, incessant ringing of the doorbell and piles of human treats just sitting there in a bowl beside the front door.
While those human treats may put extra pounds on human chaperones or give children a tummy ache, they can be lethal to your dog. It is true that chocolate is toxic to dogs. Chocolate has a caffeine-like substance called theobromine. Unlike humans, dogs lack the ability to digest this substance, which can cause vomiting, diarrhea, hyperactivity, excitability, seizures and even death.
Will a single chocolate chip sized morsel kill your pet? Probably not, but who among us can stop eating just one little bite sized candy bar? If your dog has access to the candy bowl, it may eat a toxic dose before symptoms begin to appear. The severity of the toxic effects depends upon the dose your pet eats. Milk chocolate has less toxin than dark or baker’s chocolate per ounce.
So, keep the candy secure and make certain young children don’t share their treats or leave messy wrappers lying around. If you suspect you pet has consumed chocolate, call your veterinarian right away for advice. By the way, for the health conscious pet owners out there, grapes and raisins may also cause disease and death in dogs. Scientists are not sure why but these foods in sufficient amounts can cause acute renal failure.
With a little prevention, common sense and pet appropriate treats, the whole family can have a fun and safe Halloween.
~ Dr. Grey
Learn more about Dr. Grey Stafford
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