Symptoms of chocolate problems?

[corgimom]

I know chocolate is supposed to be very bad for dogs, and Ein is currently in big trouble for being bad. A edge of a brownie fell on the floor and broke into three pieces. Ein was VERY bad and instantly ran over and stole a piece (he knows he's not supposed to take anything without waiting for us to say it's okay, but he obviously didn't do that.)

We plan to keep an extra close eye on him, in case it makes him sick, and I was wondering what we should look for. I'm not sure why chocolate is bad, I just know it is. So I'm not sure if I should look for vomitting or breathing problems or what.

Any advice is appreciated.

[Jade]

How big is he? How big was the piece?

Please see this article for toxic chocolate doses and signs.

Signs include but are not limited to:
* Vomiting
* Diarrhea
* Excessive thirst
* Hyperactivity
* Disorientation
* Increased Heart Rate
* Tremors
* Cardiac Arrhythmia
* Seizures
* Coma

[CTChin]

The most dangerous chocolate is baker's chocolate. He would have to eat a lot of brownie or milk chocolate to get very ill.

[corgimom]

He weighs 28.6 pounds and ate a piece about the size of my thumbnail (so basically the size of an average adult female's thumbnail.).

Sorry, I know it's odd to be THAT accurate about his weight. I weighed him when we stopped at the vet's office to buy a box of his monthly flea stuff. He's a couple pounds over what he should be, so we've been keeping a close eye on it.

Thank you both for the info. I figured brownie didn't have too much actual chocolate, but it's the type that has scattered chocolate pieces in it, and I'm not sure if he got any of that. I'm assuming that would be milk chocolate, though. It's been about 20 hours and I haven't noticed ANY change in him at all, so I'm guessing he'll be fine.

[damsel911]

The vet told us to feed my dog hydrogen peroxide to make our dog throw up when he got ahold of some choclate. We used a turkey baster to squirt it down his throat.

[Jade]

Use caution and always speak with a vet before giving peroxide. It can cause gastric ulcers when overdosed or given to sensitive dogs, which can be very ugly to treat.

[damsel911]

Yeah, he did tell us how much to give him and he was there to call if we needed to.