Dogs rushed to vet after tucking into chocolate truffles wrapped under Christmas tree

Sunday, 23 December 2018

Derryn McAurthur's dogs, Lilly and Murphy, were taken to the vet after getting into some chocolate liqueur truffles which were wrapped under the Christmas tree.

A sneaky dog helping himself to chocolate truffles wrapped under the Christmas tree has prompted a warning from a vet.

Two fox terriers had to be rushed to the Vet Centre Marlborough after one of them cracked into someone else's Christmas present while everybody was out.

Butter wouldn't melt ... but chocolate would.

Blenheim resident Derryn McArthur's son came home to wrapping paper and empty chocolate wrapper scattered all over the floor.

'They had shredded everything,' McArthur said.

Vet Centre Marlborough owner Stuart Burrough warns other families to keep chocolate out of reach of chocolate-loving canines.

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'They really like opening Christmas presents, it's a terribly fun game,' she said.

McArthur called the vet and they helped work out what sort of risk the dogs were facing.

'They were moderately to acute because it's dark chocolate.'

But we didn't know which dog was the culprit, she said. 'Both looked very innocent.'

They took the dogs to the vet where they had their stomachs emptied by inducing vomiting.

Lilly vomited up a little bit of breakfast, while Murphy vomited up the chocolates.

'There's our thief,' McArthur said. 'Miss Lilly last night was very sad, she looked like a puckered up nauseous Basil Brush and not a chocolate had passed her lips.

'And the thief, Mr Murphy, he was in great form saying 'yep I liked that chocolate'.'

Vet Centre Marlborough owner Stuart Burrough said chocolate was among the 20 most common poisonings reported in dogs.

'The biggest risk is in small breed dogs because the amount of chocolate available relative to their body weight makes them a greater danger,' Burrough said.

Dark chocolate, which had higher concentrations of caffeine and Theobromine, was the greatest risk, he said.

'It's pretty common that dogs get into chocolate, particularly at Christmas time when it might be wrapped up and left under a Christmas tree.

'It smells good and dogs love the taste of chocolate, so it's very tempting for them.'

A word of advice, keep it out of the reach of the dogs because they do love it, Burrough said.

Five grams of dark baking chocolate per kilogram of body weight was enough to be potentially lethal.

This compared to 50 grams of milk chocolate per kilogram, he said.

Common symptoms from a non-lethal dose of chocolate included vomiting and diarrhoea.

A higher dose of chocolate could lead to dogs being hyper excitable and a rapid heart rate, which could lead to convulsions and potentially death from heart failure.