This was posted on my Newf List.... I wanted to pass it on:

To: [email protected],
Subject: No guacamole, por favor

The other evening there was a post on the K-9 epilepsy list that said:At 12:12 AM -0400 8/6/01, Automatic digest processor wrote:

Golden Times, Summer, 2001 (quarterly magazine of Yankee Golden Retriever Rescue) printed an alert warning against avocados, "which contain persin...which has been shown to produce cardiac tissue damage,respiratory distress and mammary gland damage in a variety of animals -including horses, goats, sheep, dogs, cattle, rabbits, fish and
birds,"

-Jill A. Richardson, DVM,
-ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center.

So I wrote to Dr. Sharon Gwaltney-Brant for confirmation of this information:

"Do you know about this? How serious a problem could this be? (Aren't there dog foods that have avocado in them?)"

Her reply:

"Yes, it's true that avocados havebeen
associated with problems in animals. There is one case report of two dogs developing heart failure after eating avocados. As to how serious of a problem--I don't know that we know what's going on in the dog to say for sure. I know of dogs that eat LOTS of avocados and don't seem to have problems, yet from the case report it's apparent that at least some dogs may be sensitive (maybe there's a genetic predisposition??). Would the amount of avocado in the dog foods be a problem? I don't know, since we don't know what kind of "dose" it takes in dogs, but
considering that the amount of avocado put in those foods is very small, I'm not sure it'd pose an acute problem (whether there could be a chronic problem is also unknown). Birds, especially budgies and similar types, are VERY sensitive to avocado based on some
experimental studies. Considering the wide variety of animals that are affected, what about us humans? No one knows. I gotta admit that I don't let it stop me from eating guacamole <g>, but I figure if one day I end up needing a heart transplant to replace my avocado-scarred heart, I'll know why!

-Sharon Gwaltney-Brant DVM PhD DABVT
-ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center
-Urbana, IL USA
-www.napcc.aspca.org

And Dr. Sharon reminded me that onions and garlic can cause problems--and we know that raisins and grapes can be toxic to some dogs too....¡ caramba!