Chocolate IS toxic to dogs.

Our beagle Sprocket ate an 8oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips while we were at church last Sunday.

Chocolate is toxic to dogs. It turns out that, for dogs, a chemical in chocolate called theobromine is the source of the problem. Theobromine is similar to caffeine.

According to Animal Planet, different types of chocolate contain different amounts of theobromine: It would take 20 ounces of milk chocolate to kill a 20-pound dog, but only 2 ounces of baker's chocolate or 6 ounces of semisweet chocolate.

Sprocket got into a box of groceries that I hadn't put away yet.  We discovered the empty chocolate chip bag around 12:30pm.  We know that chocolate is toxic to dogs but Sprocket seemed fine so we didn't get too alarmed. That was a mistake!  Our lack of an immediate response could have cost us our dog's life. 

About 2:45, Sprocket started to stagger, run into things and fall down, and finally he could not stand up. It was horrible to see.  I called the vet's office and thankfully they have always vet on call.  He was on his way to the office to meet another patient, and told us to meet him there immediately.  While I was on the phone with the vet, Sprocket vomited and by the time we got to the vet he was much better. 

The vet examined him thoroughly and said that his heart and respiration were good.  He gave him several huge syringes of fluids under the skin. And a shot -  though I was so worried about Sprocket at the time, that I didn't think to ask what it was.  The vet said that you want the dog to vomit within 2 hours after ingesting something toxic like chocolate.

Sprocket was on a bland diet for 24 hours.  He's find now, we were very lucky.

Learn from our mistake - hopefully your dog won't get into chocolate, but if it does, do not delay in calling the vet!