Kiko my 5 year old mixed breed has never liked vegetables or fruit. Grapes were on sale, and I bought a kilo. I threw one to Kiko. He played with it. Throwing it up in the air and catching it all by himself. And eventually eating it. I threw another. He played with it and ate it. I was happy he was eating fruit.
After eating about 10 red grapes, he had a lot of energy and was jumping and playing. I figured it was a fructose rush. Then he just laid down. He only eats one meal a day (his choice). Dinner. He wasn’t interested in it.
I became concerned and did a search: grapes and dogs. Only to discover that it can be FATAL! There is no anecdotes! In my small Mexican town, there are no vets that could handle the procedure outlined in the websites.
Needless to say, I freaked out! I had killed my doggie! I stayed up all night just watching him. I later (three hours after ingestion of grapes) gave him some dry dog food and he ate it. I thought this is good.
I read about 6 different websites. I guess the fatalness depends on quantity and the type of breed. And maybe the type of grape, seedless or seeds and the color. Kiko ate red grapes with seeds. He weighs about 20 kilos.
Bottom line is, he seems fine. What a relief!
I will avoid giving him grapes in the future. Maybe other dog owners should do the same.
Have you ever heard of the dangers of giving grapes to dogs?
Yep. Grapes. Onions (and garlic). Chocolate (especially in the form of cocoa powder). Anything containing “sugar alcohol”/xylitol as an artificial sweetener. Now, I’ll admit, I give my 70 lb dog small doses of food containing all of the above. But I do know that those are the standard foods to be aware of feeding dogs.
Like any parent, you like it when the kids try new things.
Yes, I was aware that dogs should not eat grapes. I may have learned that on the SDMB, many years ago.
Yes I am very aware of grapes being dangerous to dogs and I was :eek: while reading your post . That was a close call I posted a link for you of other foods that bad for pets. You should always Google people food before feeding it to your pets .
As an ER vet tech, I’ve lost count of how many dogs I’ve had to make puke up grapes. Raisins are much worse as far as toxicity. I can’t attest as to how they generally do at home without treatment, but I can say if they are brought to us and treated/hospitalized, they do fine.
Fatalities I’ve seen have been from massive amounts of chocolate, and xylitol (gum! just don’t even buy it in my opinion!) in dogs, and lily exposure in cats.
When my last dog was young and we were in weekly training class, the trainer’s prize Samoyed bitch (she was also a breeder) died after eating a bunch of yogurt-covered raisins that she (the dog) had stolen off the counter.
It was the saddest, scariest thing I’d heard at the time. I became very aware of what dogs can and can’t eat.
Now that My dogs are around kids all the time, and the kids eat more raisins and grapes than anything, I am constantly reminding them “NO GRAPES OR RAISINS FOR DOGS!” In fact I told them today because they had grapes for dessert and the older one kind of rolled her eyes and said “we know!” But I keep reminding them anyway. I feel like grapes and raisins especially are easy to toss to the dogs and you have to keep it on the edge of your mind.
I used to let my dog lick out cereal bowls, including sometimes Raisin Bran, before I knew about this. I also used to let her lick pots that had had pasta, with no doubt onion and garlic. Fortunately, she was a big dog, and survived it all. She once even got into some chocolate, and then acted like she’d done a line of coke, after which she drank about a gallon of water all at once. We called the vet, who assured us that her size, and the fact that she was OK up to that point probably meant she’d be fine.
Thank goodness I didn’t have a small dog. I kept chocolate in a very high cabinet after that.
Thank you pha for the link (it’s bookmarked). Kiko will be very sad. No more sharing of my ice cream cone.
And thank you for the advice about googling people food and its consequences with doggies. I appreciate your concerns.
I wasn’t aware that avocados and macadamia nuts were a problem.
I confess that once in a while we have given our Lab small amounts of ice cream and frozen custard. It may not be recommended but she has done fine with it.
It seems that frozen yogurt in limited quantities is OK for canines.
A veterinarian I was talking to said that they are starting to think it’s not the grapes themselves that are dangerous, but some associated contaminant that they haven’t narrowed down yet. The evidence for this is the number of dogs that have been fine after eating grapes on several occasions, and then suffered a lethal reaction when eating them again.
Yes, Kiko usually eats the last 1/3 of my ice cream cone. Never had a problem.
Also, he was a street dog before he adopted me. So, he ate everything in the street. Chicken bones, etc. Sometimes the lechon carrito man gives me a pork shoulder bone. And he has done fine eating them.
And he loves cheese. Any kind. But due to the cost of it, he doesn’t see much cheese.
It is a tough decision on what to offer your doggie. But, grapes, never! Too much anxiety for me.
Just don’t feed your dog anything but dog food and dog treats, and you won’t have to worry about it.
Humans are the rare animal that has developed adult lactose tolerance. Cheese and ice cream can make your dog’s belly hurt. A tad might be ok, but no more than that.
My dog ate about a week’s worth of chocolate exlax. Tried to make him vomit using hydrogen peroxide. He just ate all of that too. Just kind of burped and that was it. He only weighs 10lbs! This was last night. He doesn’t seem to be affected at all.
Chocolate contains theobromine, which, if i understand correctly, makes their hearts race. Too much can lead to fatal complications, but if no heart attack or stroke or whatever occurs, the theobromine works its way out of their systems and they return to normal after a period of stress.
The dangerous element in grapes has not been identified yet – whether it’s certain varieties, certain pesticides, or what – and the danger is difficult to predict. Some dogs have died from a single grape, others have eaten a quantity with no apparent effect. But it’s definitely a real thing to be concerned about.
The damage is done to the liver, I think – OP might want to have the dog’s liver values tested the next time blood is drawn.
And at that, its mostly European humans. Most humans actually have some level of intolerance. Dairy isn’t big in Asia.
Kidneys. Keep new containers of hydrogen peroxide (once it’s unsealed, it eventually loses whatever quality that makes a dog throw up) and activated charcoal on hand in case it happens again, along with a vet visit, of course. I once bought a bag of trail mix that ended up costing hundreds of dollars, because the dogs got hold of it. The kidney damage caused by raisins doesn’t happen immediately. It takes a couple of days, so I had to wait for awhile to find out whether or not my inattentiveness had killed my pets (they survived, without kidney damage).