Had dinner with a veterinarian friend this evening, and she was warning us about the dangers of the artificial sweetner
Xylitol being even more dangerous/poisonous to dogs than previously thought.
A client brought her dog in after it had gotten into a visitor's purse containing some gum made with Xylitol. It took only 30 minutes for the substance to reduce the dog's blood sugar enough to go into diabetic seizure.
According to Snopes:
Quote:
As a general rule of thumb, between eight and ten pieces of gum might be deadly to a 65-pound canine, but a smaller dog could easily die after ingesting far less (perhaps as few as two sticks of gum).
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The dog was saved, but it's not yet known whether liver damage was done.
I tried to find a (somewhat) comprehensive list of products that contain Xylitol, but was unable to. Originally used in things like sugar-free gum, candies, breath mints, toothpaste, jellies, desserts, baked goods, and some OTC and prescription medicines, the list of items is growing - just about anything.
The important thing is to check labels carefully, and please keep this stuff away from dogs.
It doesn't
seem to be harmful to cats, but mostly what I found were statements like:
Quote:
There's no data on xylitol's effect on felines because there's no record of cats having ingested the substance. Veterinarians believe that cats either choose not to eat foods that contain xylitol, or their digestive systems handle it differently.
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It probably warrants further investigation.
Doc