UPDATE: ARE TOO MANY GRAPES AND RAISINS BAD FOR DOGS?

When ASPCA News Alert ran an item two weeks ago on the incidence of poisoning in dogs from the ingestion of large amounts of grapes and raisins, many readers wanted to know more. We checked in with the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center's Dr. Jill A. Richardson for the answers to your questions:

Several canine caretakers wrote in to say that they would no longer give their pets the occasional grape or raisin as a treat. "There are many people who have decided to do the same thing," responds Richardson, "but no one has reported poisoning from their pets ingesting the occasional single grape or raisin. The cases we have received involved ingestion of 2 ounces to 4.4 ounces."

Dog-owning reader Bill Benson was concerned that the few slices of banana he regularly shares with his basenji at breakfast could be harmful to her. Not to worry--"Bananas are okay," says Richardson.

B.J. Shultis e-mailed us about the family's 11-year-old dog, who has had fresh fruit and veggie snacks--including grapes, lettuce and carrots--throughout his life. "After all the years of giving him grapes as treats, could he still possibly get kidney dysfunction?" Shultis asks. Replies Richardson, "We haven't had any reports of dogs developing long-term effects from small ingestion of grapes--one or two as treats, I assume--over the years."

"Can grapes or raisins hurt small animals such as rats and gerbils?" wonders Paula Lizotte. The APCC has not yet received a case involving small animals, or pocket pets, and grapes or raisins. "But we still don't know why some types of the fruit are causing problems and others are not," says Richardson. "And we have had one case of kidney failure in a cat who ate raisins."

For more information on poison prevention, please visit APCC online.