Foods that are toxic to animals

**Ceashels** · 01-25-2012, 08:53 AM

Just wanted to get this out to pet owners some of them surprised me.

Keep your pets safe from natural toxins | Pets - Yahoo! Shine

**Spirit Deer** · 01-25-2012, 11:48 AM

Well, some of it makes sense.

Deer routinely eat our apple trees, including the seeds of the apples, the twigs, and the leaves. I guess they didn't get the memo that it's supposed to kill them. OTOH, they won't touch tomatoes. Raccoons also eat apples as fast as they appear, including the seeds, ditto for bears .

Many human drugs are also routinely used for dogs, such as aspirin as an anti-inflammatory and pain med, Pepto Bismal for digestive problems, and a whole host of eye medications our own dog gets to treat her glaucoma, including some heavy-duty prescription drugs such as Xalatan. DES was also a human drug till it was banned, routinely used to stop incontinence in spayed female dogs.

Our vet, in his twenty-year career, told us he has only seen one case of onion poisoning in a dog, and that was a tiny dog who had eaten a ton of barbecued onions while its people weren't looking.

It's a good idea to be aware though, and articles like this do help raise awareness of the ordinary things we don't think about that could be harmful to our beloved pets. As they said, better safe than sorry.

One thing they mentioned was grass, and I'm glad someone mentioned that. I've always thought it's incredibly stupid to put a bunch of weed killers (poison) on lawns and then let the kids and pets go out and play on it. Where's the common sense in that scenario?

**nodmicks** · 01-25-2012, 03:19 PM

Ekk my dogs shared and avocado chicken salad with me yesterday!

**frugalwarrior2** · 01-25-2012, 04:02 PM

wow, you can always learn something
I mushrooms I didn't know. No more stir fry leftovers for the dogs for sure. And the caffiene. I just thought hyper. I wish all vets would just hand out a list w/ all adoptions or new clients! Thank you. Off to tell hubby!

**frugalfranny** · 01-26-2012, 12:17 AM

Thanks Cea...........

didn't know about the mushrooms myself and
the avocados here are so expensive that when I DO treat myself I don't share!!

The rest I am pretty safe with..........although might have to watch the walnuts..........I eat 'the mix' and will share a rare piece.

Good thing they didn't say bananas.............mine sit and watch me, knowing they will get the end piece when I get there!!!

**hnybny91** · 01-26-2012, 06:48 AM

My gluten free dog food actually says it had avocado in it for a healthy coat so I don't think avocado is harmful to dogs. Now birds on the other hand, that will kill them.

**mombottoo** · 01-26-2012, 08:19 AM

An animal would have to eat a very large amount of apple cores, stems, etc. in order for cyanide to poison them and the same can be said for many of the other foods listed in the article. Kane our lab/rot mix was a large dog. Stood dang near table high at his back (yes, he could lay his head on the table if he wouldn't have been trained not to) and at his peak weighed over 120 pounds. For a dog his size the vet figured he'd live to be around 10...he lived to age 14 when we finally had to have him euthanized. Apple cores and grapes were a couple of his favorites, sauteed onions & mushrooms were another. Generally, it is best all around not to feed your pet people food but, we humans are a weak bunch and love to share with our furry friends. Avocados are extremely poisonous to parrots but, Kane loved guacamole (sp) and like his humans he had to have chips to go with it

.

I'm surprised maple leaves weren't listed for horses a bushel of dried maple leaves can kill a horse...just found that out while researching something for my dd. Luckily, they don't have any maple trees anywhere near their horse pastures. Left me wondering if maple leaves are that toxic to horses then they must be toxic for other mammals as well. On the other hand the vet said a horse would have to eat more than its weight in apples all at one time in order to cause any damage.

**MTS04** · 01-26-2012, 12:03 PM

Avacado itself can be ok in small doses - it can cause pancreatitis, which is horrible for any being.

Onion poisoning is not always recognized. Onions cause the red blood cells to not bind with the oxygen at the lungs. Thus causing the dog to essentially suffocate.

Raisins - I've seen 3 cases of raisin poisoning when I worked at the vets office. It's a subtle poisoning. Basically causes the kidneys to shut down. if caught early, it's easily treated and reversed, but if you wait around for symptoms of poisoning, your dog's chances aren't as great. For one pug mix, it only took less than 1 ounce of raisins (half of a snack box) to cause kidney failure to start.

Toxins can be subtle in their effect on your pet.

**mombottoo** · 01-26-2012, 08:38 PM

Originally Posted by MTS04

Avacado itself can be ok in small doses - it can cause pancreatitis, which is horrible for any being.

Onion poisoning is not always recognized. Onions cause the red blood cells to not bind with the oxygen at the lungs. Thus causing the dog to essentially suffocate.

Raisins - I've seen 3 cases of raisin poisoning when I worked at the vets office. It's a subtle poisoning. Basically causes the kidneys to shut down. if caught early, it's easily treated and reversed, but if you wait around for symptoms of poisoning, your dog's chances aren't as great. For one pug mix, it only took less than 1 ounce of raisins (half of a snack box) to cause kidney failure to start.

Toxins can be subtle in their effect on your pet.

Do you think that the affects are worse on smaller breeds of dogs than on the larger ones? Kane was huge and while he didn't eat pounds of any of the things I listed at one time, he did eat them fairly regularly. Never, had an issue with any of those foods and he was always a very healthy dog up until old age got him.

**MTS04** · 01-29-2012, 06:31 PM

Originally Posted by mombottoo

Do you think that the affects are worse on smaller breeds of dogs than on the larger ones? Kane was huge and while he didn't eat pounds of any of the things I listed at one time, he did eat them fairly regularly. Never, had an issue with any of those foods and he was always a very healthy dog up until old age got him.

Not always the size, but moreso the dog. Yes, size does play a bit into it, especially with onions and raisins. But give a large dog, that say perhaps is borderline GI issues, a bit of avocado, and you can be in a world of hurt.
Avoderm dog food uses the good acids that are in the avocado to help with skin health, etc. Science is wonderful at creating these ingenious dog foods. However, I think putting a picture of an avocado on a dog food bag does a lot of mis-education to a good population of people. They see the Avocado on the bag and think, heck, maybe I'll add avocado to Fifi's food tonight at dinner. Next thing you know Fifi is at the Evet because she is dehydrated and vomiting, and now she's getting Iv fluids, electrolytes and antibiotics to hopefully stop the inflammation of her pancreas and save her life.
Pancreatitis can be fatal if it's acute onset and not dealt with swiftly. I don't mean to be an alarmist, but it's so sad to watch a family blame themselves when their dog is sick or dying because of something they did.

**bent** · 01-29-2012, 09:03 PM

well when our buddy adopted us as his humans I got the bright idea to use raisins to train him. I'm dense sometimes but when I noticed after a day him sneezing after eating a raisin I went to google and did a search..sure nuff he couldn't have them. and since 3 yrs ago I was into 'keeping track' of his progress I had a record of how many he had consumed over the week. I knew about onions and chocolate.