Who would have guessed? Xylitol, a sugar-free sweetener, is toxic to dogs even in small quantities:
A sugar substitute found in a variety of sugar-free and dietetic cookies, mints and chewing gum is proving highly toxic, even fatal, to snack-snatching dogs.
Xylitol, popular in Europe for decades but a relative newcomer to the U.S. alternative-sweeteners market, can be "very, very serious" to dogs when ingested, says Dana Farbman, spokeswoman for the Animal Poison Control Center of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
"It doesn't take a whole lot (of xylitol), and the effects are so rapid that the window of opportunity to treat the dog is extremely small," Farbman says. . . . .
Within 30 minutes of consuming a small amount of a xylitol-sweetened product, the ASPCA says, dogs can experience a dramatic drop in blood sugar, and they usually begin vomiting, become lethargic and can have difficulty standing or walking. Some have seizures, develop internal hemorrhaging and lesions and suffer liver failure. As few as two or three sticks of xylitol gum could be toxic to a 20-pound dog, the ASPCA says.
Immediate and aggressive veterinary treatment, which includes glucose drips and IV fluids, has proved effective in many cases.
Dog owners, lock up your sugar-free gum and cookies! If your pet get its paws on any product containing Xylitol, get to your vet immediately (every second counts) and be prepared to pay for some life-saving treatment.
If you're still reading, you are obviously fascinated by this news and want to see another expert drawing of what can happen if you leave products containing Xylitol around your dogs. Therefore, here is my daughter's depiction of the potentially tragic consequences. Like my depiction, this was drawn with a mouse and cursor using Microsoft Paint:
By the way, that cryptic message at the bottom, written over the dog, is not a coded message from my daughter to you. I think it's supposed to be the dog telling us that he or she is O.K. That's a relief!
Remember, if you suspect that your dog has eaten anything containing Xylitol, call your vet and take your dog in immediately.
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