Top 10 Things DOGS should NOT eat!

[MA-Caver]

For the dog lovers on this forum... very important read ... (keep clicking next) as they describe 10 of the most hazardous things for dogs to chew on. Some of them might be surprising. So clean up after yourselves ya slobs... you're gonna hurt your dogs if you don't!
You won't believe what is the #1 thing that Vets find inside dogs tummies!
http://www.petsugar.com/slideshow/2524477

Other things NOT on the list that should be kept a watchful eye on are the Rawhide chew toys... dogs love 'em and they ARE good for the teeth, gums and jaws... BUT they can get chewed to pieces and those pieces will get swallowed and those pieces CAN get lodged in the throat or a turn of the intestines... they have a bad habit of adsorbing moisture and will swell up and if it's lodged in the throat (and dog takes a drink to try and wash it down) it could choke your pet. Dogs aren't going to walk up to you gasping and pointing at their throat and miming hitting their back... they're going to just sit there and gag and gag until they either dislodge the piece or swallow it down... or worse ... die.

Other types of chew toys... there are those made out of bundles of string... those are great teeth cleaning toys (like floss) and will help keep your dog's mouth healthy... but care must be taken that the dog doesn't ingest too much of the string. If it gets really tattered and frayed then toss it out. Watch out for those toys with those neat long dangling rubber nubs should be tossed out too as they can be chewed off and swallowed.
Like the article says some of those chew toys while really cute and cheap are hazardous after the dog starts working on them for a while.
Unless you're the type that picks up after the dog after play time don't leave them laying around.

Best by far are probably those Kong chew/throw toys as you get the right size appropriate for your dog (ask sales person or be a good judge of what can/cannot fit in to your dogs mouth but not down it's throat) and some have little holes where you can put a milk-bone into as a special treat (awww)... They're very tough and can last a long time but again as with ANY toy... watch it and see if it's starting to piece off or fray or whatever... toss it and get a new one.
Nylabones are dangerous as according to this report ... http://www.benderplace.com/allcreaturesgreatandsmall/product_alerts.htm#Nylabone
This is the home page of the site... lots of good info on there... http://www.benderplace.com/allcreaturesgreatandsmall/index.html

Oh and Chocolate... never NEVER chocolate. Some of you already know this but surprisingly a lot of people don't... Chocolate is poison for dogs.
They do make doggy treats that have chocolate FLAVOR in them so if you MUST, then get those. Otherwise make it a bit of cheese or a real doggy treat from the pet store.

People say dogs are their best friends, that they're part of the family... well treat them like they are and not just an extension of it. The vet bills can be staggering when you don't treat them well.

:asian:

Any other ideas/hints/warnings?

 

[crushing]

I was surprised to see corn cobs on the list. A friend's dog really likes to eat corn on the cob. We roasted some corn on the cob on the grill at his house and he made up one specially for his dog. The dog did the corn off the cob and left the cob alone. I had never seen a dog eat corn like that before.

Also, with the holidays coming up beware of garland, streamers, and tree 'icicles'. They may cause intestinal blockage if ingested.

 

[Kacey]

None of those particularly surprised me; I had a dog that ate dirty underwear and socks... luckily, she never swallowed enough to hurt herself, and the up side was that was the only way I ever trained my ex-husband to put his dirty clothes in the hamper, so the dog couldn't get to them.

Some other foods you shouldn't feed dogs - onions, grapes, and macadamia nuts - there's a good article here about things to avoid letting your dog eat.

 

[theletch1]

I was a bit surprised that rocks were on the list. I've never seen a dog eat them. Tucker went through a phase where anything that he could get his mouth on was gonna get chewed up. He grew out of it without any harm being done. We still have to keep an eye on him with wood chips though. After I've split a load of wood for the wood stove he tries to chew on the shards.

As to the chocolate that Caver mentioned, if I understand correctly, the caffeine in chocolate overstimulates the dogs heart and can cause cardiac arrest. Of course, it could be that I'm mis-remembering but I think that's what I heard.

 

[JadecloudAlchemist]

It missed 2 important ones!!

Grapes or Rasins

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/raisins.asp

And Cat Poop

http://petcaretips.net/stop-dog-eating-cat-litter.html

 

[MA-Caver]

It missed 2 important ones!!

Grapes or Rasins

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/raisins.asp

And Cat Poop

http://petcaretips.net/stop-dog-eating-cat-litter.html

Cat poop, now that's an odd one since a dog would eat it's own feces. Maybe cats inherently secret some kind of poison that's deadly to dogs in their fecal matter knowing they stand a good chance of getting eaten and thereby establishing their supremacy as household pets. Hmm, where's Oliver Stone or Michael Moore when you need 'em??

Afterthought... never gonna let a dog lick my face again! :barf: Talk about getting shitfaced!

 

[Kacey]

I was a bit surprised that rocks were on the list. I've never seen a dog eat them. Tucker went through a phase where anything that he could get his mouth on was gonna get chewed up. He grew out of it without any harm being done. We still have to keep an eye on him with wood chips though. After I've split a load of wood for the wood stove he tries to chew on the shards.

As to the chocolate that Caver mentioned, if I understand correctly, the caffeine in chocolate overstimulates the dogs heart and can cause cardiac arrest. Of course, it could be that I'm mis-remembering but I think that's what I heard.

It's not caffeine - it's theobromine, a chemical from the same family, that is so bad for dogs (and, from what I've heard, cats and birds as well). Theobromine is more concentrated in dark chocolate than in milk chocolate, making dark chocolate more dangerous (and explaining how my last dog ate 10 ounces of mini milk chocolate bars my ex left on the back of the couch - incuding the wrappers - and was fine once the diarrhea passed).

 

[Tez3]

I loved the Golden Retrievers used in the slide show and the Duchess of Cornwall looking at all the up turned legs! Easy to mistake those two rofl!

My dog has a thing for used teabags, she'll try and get them out of the bin if she can. Egg shells as well. I wonder if there's something in this two that she thinks she needs?

 

[Cryozombie]

Candy/gum with Xylitol is attractive to dogs and very toxic to them.

And with Thanksgiving coming up, two things to beware of feeding your dog Turkey skin... there is a chemical in the skin that is hard on the dog and can cause complications in large doses. (Which for a small dog doesn't have to be much) and giving it treats made with Nutmeg... Nutmeg is like doggie LSD.

 

[Carol]

I loved the Golden Retrievers used in the slide show and the Duchess of Cornwall looking at all the up turned legs! Easy to mistake those two rofl!

:lol2: :lol2:

 

[Lynne]

I loved the Golden Retrievers used in the slide show and the Duchess of Cornwall looking at all the up turned legs! Easy to mistake those two rofl!

My dog has a thing for used teabags, she'll try and get them out of the bin if she can. Egg shells as well. I wonder if there's something in this two that she thinks she needs?

Egg shells are good for dogs, high in calcium.

 

[Lynne]

I was surprised to find that all parts of the avocado plant are toxic to dogs. Avocado causes fluid retention around the dog's organs,including the heart, and they go into cardiac arrest. No guacamole for the pooches.

My dog is an agressive chewer. The only toy he can have is a Galileo bone. We have to replace those every few months. When he was one year old, he bit off part of a Hartz rubber bone which became lodged in his intestines. We almost lost him. The vet said she thought he had a hairball and gave us cat hairball medicine. He had the classic symptoms of intestinal obstruction - vomiting but no pooing. We took him to Cornell and via an MRI they found the obstruction, to the tune of $2500.

 

[jks9199]

Candy/gum with Xylitol is attractive to dogs and very toxic to them.

And with Thanksgiving coming up, two things to beware of feeding your dog Turkey skin... there is a chemical in the skin that is hard on the dog and can cause complications in large doses. (Which for a small dog doesn't have to be much) and giving it treats made with Nutmeg... Nutmeg is like doggie LSD.

Nutmeg is a hallucinagen for people, too...

Granted, the effective dose is pretty high... but it's worth knowing. Especially at this time of year. I've known a couple of people to end up buzzed by more than booze drinking eggnog...