I would like to list a few of the most common foods to not feed your pet and list some of their clinical symptoms of toxicity in an attempt to help others understand the seriousness of our instructions.
Coffee/tea: Caffeine is the ingredient in coffee causing the toxicity. While a few quick laps of coffee or tea snuck from a cup by a coy dog will not cause a problem, consuming them in larger quantities can cause major problems. High amounts of caffeine are found most commonly in coffee grounds, used tea bags, soda, energy drinks and diet pills.
Chocolate: Theobromine, the toxic ingredient in chocolate, is a close cousin to caffeine and will cause similar clinical symptoms.
Within 1-2 hours of exposure of either coffee, tea or chocolate your dog may show mild to severe hyperactivity, restlessness, vomiting, tachycardia (elevated heart rate), hypertension (elevated blood pressure), abnormal heart rhythms, tremors, hyperthermia (elevated body temperature) seizures, and collapse.
Fatty foods: Fried, fatty foods are particularly dangerous to dogs as they can cause the clinical symptoms of what is commonly called "garbage gut." The medical term for garbage gut is pancreatitis. Pancreatitis is the inflammation of the pancreas and is a painful condition. Dogs may present with vomiting and diarrhea, severe pain on palpation of the abdomen, lethargy, elevated temperature and if left untreated pancreatitis may cause death.
Salt: The occasional potato chip does not contain enough salt to cause problems in dogs. However, dogs are known to like the taste of salt and may find the salt shaker worth sniffing out. Another common place salt is found that most people are not aware of is in home made play doughs. Salt poisoning in dogs will result in clinical symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea, inappetance, lethargy, ataxia (walking drunk), excessive thirst or urination, potential injury to the kidneys, tremors, seizures, coma, and even death when untreated.
Onions and Garlic: While most dogs will not likely ingest a whole onion or garlic bulb, they may enjoy the taste of these ingredients cooked in other foods. Onions, and to a much lesser degree garlic cause a condition known as hemolytic anemia. Hemolytic anemia is the destruction of red blood cells. Red blood cells are needed to carry oxygen to the tissues of the body. Inadequate red blood cells will cause lethargy and eventually death in dogs.
Xylitol: Xylitol is an artificial sweetener found in "sugar free" foods. The most common place xylitol is found is in sugar free gum and suckers, cough syrups, children's chewable vitamins, toothpastes, and mouthwashes. The problem occurs soon after ingestion. Xylitol is quickly absorbed and results in a release of insulin from the pancreas which results in a profound decrease of blood sugar causing a severe hypoglycemia.
Raw foods: A common misconception exists that since dogs eat raw meat in the wild, they should be fed raw meat from the grocery store. The difference in the two meats is that the raw meat in wild is from a fresh kill. Feeding your pet raw meat from the grocery store is not the same. This meat has gone through a fabrication process and is very likely contaminated with harmful bacteria such as Salmonlella and E. coli. Clinical symptoms are similar to those in humans and are severe abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea.
Grapes and Raisins: Veterinarians are not sure what exactly is the toxic agent in grapes and raisins but many animals have suffered acute renal failure after ingestion.
The above listed foods are only a few of the foods we know will cause toxicity in dogs, but are the most common. Many of these toxic agents may be added to a food very discretely and a simple gesture of kindness to your pet can turn into a serious illness or even death. For these reasons the veterinarians at Leesburg Animal Hospital strongly advise to feed only a high quality commercial diet with the occasional commercial treat. We also recommend having on hand the number of the Pet Poison Help Line (855-764-7661) and our after hours emergency number (229-869-43020).