Human Food Toxic to Dogs

Often I write a cute little headline to capture your attention, but this was too scary of an experience to make it a light topic. I was unpacking from at trip to Hawaii. I had never been to the Islands before and was super excited. I ate fresh fruits and vegetables and brought back some lovely coffee, chocolates and macadamia nuts. 

Late in the evening I was a little hungry and I wanted to transport myself back to my Island adventure. I pulled out a package of fresh macadamia nuts. I thought how healthy I was being snacking on these fresh, yummy balls of protein. 

The next morning, I saw the empty canister that had housed my macadamia treat. George O'Malley had taken them off the living room coffee table and eaten all that remained. I looked at him and thought all sorts of thoughts about his behavior knowing that I should not have left them in the one place that he feels he can obtain something when we are in bed. After about an hour I started thinking that I should google macadamia nuts and dogs to make sure there would be no problem after George's late night binge. Shittake! I was alarmed and surprised. Macadamia nuts are toxic to dogs. It can cause lethargy, depression, muscle weakness AND leg paralysis.

I took George for his walk and observed. He was limping. I immediately called the vet and scheduled an appointment. The good news, the vet told me symptoms generally subside after 48 hours and that held true for George. We went ahead and gave him active charcoal and IV fluids to combat dehydration in case of vomiting or diarrhea. I am grateful he did not expel excess fluid from either end.

All is back to normal now, but I wanted to share this with you as well as a list of other foods that should NEVER be given to dogs*:

Alcoholic beverages, avocados, chocolate, coffee, caffeine, citrus, coconut, coconut oil, grapes, raisins, macadamia nuts, nuts, milk, dairy, raw/undercooked meat or eggs or bones, onions, garlic, chives, salt and salty food snacks, XYLITOL, and yeast dough.

I capitalized Xylitol as it was found recently in some types of peanut butter and there have been cases of dogs dying from eating it.

I have to tell you that even hearing from a veterinarian that my dogs symptoms would go away did not keep me from staring at him during his long bouts of sleep when he was sick. Experts and professionals are not sure why or how the macadamia nut affects a canine bodily functions and to me that means, they just don't know enough about it to be 100% sure of the outcome.

So, while I have been known to share some of my chicken after dinner with George, It is really good to have a list of things NOT to share with our furry family member.

Thanks for letting me share with you, George's friends.

-Risa

*From the ASPCA - Here is the link to poisonous or toxic foods for dogs: https://www.aspca.org/pet-care/animal-poison-control/people-foods-avoid-feeding-your-pets